Blacklight In The Underground
by TenebrisScholar
Summary: Alex and Dana Mercer decide to go camping, but end up falling into the Underground. Will the monsters survive Alex Mercer, or will he show them the face of a TRUE monster?
1. Chapter 1

**My notes: Well this was fun to wright! Hopefully I'll have more on the way. Please leave a review telling me what you think, it should help me out a lot. Also, this is not a genocide run story, but please let me know if you would like to see a genocide version of this.  
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 **Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or Undertale, obviously.**

The first thing Alex Mercer felt upon awakening was confusion. Had he been knocked out? Was it even possible for him to be knocked unconscious? He highly doubted it. What had happened? Why was he in a cave laying on his back, and why did he smell flowers?

He sat up and looked at the hole in the ceiling of the cave from which golden light streamed, indicating the sun was going down, and accessed his Web of Intrigue in an attempt to recall the last few moments before he went "unconscious". Surprisingly, those memories were exceedingly hard to access. It was as if they were repressed, if he was to use human terms to describe it. He didn't even know he could get repressed memories!

Thoroughly frustrated, his body went stiff as rock as he forced his way into the memories, relentlessly shredding through the mental barrier blocking them. He convulsed slightly as they all came flooding back in a torrential storm of thought that would be completely unintelligible for anybody except for him.

 _(Flashback)_

It was 2 years after the events of the Outbreak and Elizabeth Green. For the entirety of the first year he had hunted down and destroyed the remains of Blackwatch and Gentek, to the very last man. During his attack on their last and most well hidden and secure Blackwatch base he had finally found Pariah, the son of Elizabeth Greene, and destroyed him, though it had vert nearly cost him his life.

Around the beginning of the second year, after Blackwatch and Gentek were completely obliterated, he had considered traveling the world, just to explore and learn more about humanity, but decided against it preferring to stay as close to Dana as possible to keep her safe from any potential threats. A few weeks later she woke up from her coma, and things were relatively normal for a while. Dana got her job writing for the local tabloids back and went back to her studies at NYU, while Alex hunted down and killed gangs and gang members throughout New York and got his money off their bodies.

After letting her readjust for a time, Alex reluctantly decided to inform Dana of his true nature as a living virus, knowing she would eventually find out on her own and that it would be best to just inform her as soon as possible to avoid any unnecessary conflict later. She took it better then expected, and still treated him like her brother, though she never looked at him quite the same after learning of what he used for food. She made rules that he could no longer consume humans unless absolutely necessary, or unless they attacked either her or him first, restricting him to animals and store bought meat (and the occasional gang member, but again, only occasional). Alex accepted these rules without much complaint, he only needed biomass occasionally anyways.

It was now winter break for Dana's college, and she decided to take a vacation to go camping at a large mountain a few hours drive away, and to take Alex with her in an attempt to try to get him how to loosen up and relax. Alex just tried to play along, just to make her happy. He still very much thought of her as his little sister and the only family he really had, and didn't want to alienate her.

The forest was unnaturally quiet. No birds chirped, nor did any other animals make any noises. It was as if they were all hiding. This was likely due to Alex's presence. Animals usually fled on sight, whenever he was around. Rarely, if ever, did they stand and fight and those rare times were only if he had them cornered and they couldn't run.

He looked at the position of the sun in the sky. They had been hiking through the forest for a few hours, and the sun was at it's peak in the sky. They would need to set up camp soon, before it started to go down. It was still the middle of winter, and he didn't want her catching a cold. She was wearing a light pink and blue sweater, but that wouldn't help much when it gets below freezing.

"We need to stop and set up camp soon." Alex stated, giving voice to his thoughts. "I don't want you getting sick out here."

"Uuuggghhh, thanks Dad." Dana teased, earning an annoyed look from Alex. She pulled a map from her pocket and unfolded it. After studying it for a moment she said, "There is a clearing a little ways ahead. It shouldn't take to long for us to get there if we keep walking straight."

They eventually made it to the clearing Dana indicated. Alex set the backpack, holding all their supplies, down by a tree and began unzipping it. "I'll go look for some fire wood while you set up the tent, Alex." Dana stated.

"Fine, just be careful." he called after her, before she walked off. If she heard him, she didn't give any sign of it as she disappeared into the forest.

A few minutes later Alex was half way finished setting up the tent when a loud scream pierced through the woods. "DANA!" He shouted in response, immediately dropping what he was doing and sprinting off in the direction of the scream. There was only one thought in his mind as he bolted full speed through the forest, knocking over trees and jumping over boulders that were in his way as he ran, _'SAVE DANA!'_

After about a minute he reached where he heard the scream, and forced himself to a sliding stop, digging a good sized trench in the ground as he did. Looking around he called, "DANA!" Hoping for a response, but getting none. He finally noticed a large hole in the ground nearby. He rushed over and looked inside, the sun illuminating it well enough that he didn't need to use his thermal vision. At the bottom of the hole he saw Dana's unconscious form, laying on her side. "Hold on Dana, I'll get you out of there!" He exclaimed, knowing she couldn't hear him in her unconscious state.

He kneeled down over the edge and morphed one of his arms into something like his whip fist, minus all the spikes and sharp points, designed specifically to be perfectly safe to grab and pull her up with. He began lowering it down, and grabbed her by the wrist. He then began to try to retract the limb, but was met with unexpected resistance keeping the limb trapped in the hole. He pulled harder, and it still refused to budge. He pulled even harder and a glowing white field appeared in the opening of the hole.

Enraged Alex pulled even harder, determined to break whatever was keeping him from rescuing his sister, groaning in effort. Agonizing pain suddenly permeated his every cell as the field of white energy grew even more visible. It felt as if trillions of volts of electricity were coursing through him at that moment, but even still he held on and kept pulling, taking extra care not to hurt Dana.

Tendrils appeared from his body, thrashing violently from the pain as he pulled even harder, cutting near by plants to shreds and tearing massive gashes into the hard ground around him. **"DAAANNNAAAA!"** He shouted, his voice deeper and more distorted then normal, as he pulled so hard he began physically sinking into the ground, unimaginable pain tearing through every fiber of his being. His eyes turned bio-luminescent orange while both crimson and orange bio-luminescent splotches began popping up all over his body. The pain alone would have long sense killed him if he was human.

He tried pulling even harder, the limits of his strength unknown even to him. He could practically feel the barrier keeping him trapped about to shatter under the force of his strength, when finally a bright flash filled his vision and hellish pain engulfed him, before everything finally went black.

 _(End of Flashback)_

"Dana!" Alex realized, immediately bolting upright. Looking around the cave he saw nothing, at first. Until he heard a small groan next to him. Looking down he saw her laying on her back on a flowerbed, unhurt despite his exertions in trying to get her out, meaning she still had all her limbs and none of them appeared to be broken. He immediately went to his knees and picked her up and hugged her tightly, again being careful not to harm her. Normally he wasn't one to express his emotions like this but, he had been so worried. He couldn't lose his sister again, not like this, not after Greene had captured her and put her in a year long coma.

"A-Alex?" Dana asked groggily, just waking up.

"Easy Dana, you had quite the fall and ended up getting knocked unconscious. You should be fine now though."

Something was wrong though, he realized, something Alex hadn't noticed when he first woke up. He grabbed her gently by the shoulders and held her out in front of him. Her clothes were completely intact, he didn't smell any blood so he knew she hadn't gotten any cuts or scrapes from the fall, she wasn't exhibiting any odd behavior that would indicate she had a concussion. Then it hit him.

She had gotten much smaller, her muscular and skeletal structure had changed as well, and her voice was more high pitched then normal, almost child like... He froze.

"Alex, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Dana asked nervously, now fully awake. Having a living, man-eating, virus -even one that thinks of you as a sister- looking at you so intently would be a bit more then a little creepy for anyone. This was only compounded when Alex's eyes started glowing dimly as he switched to his thermal vision.

He studied her body temperature and searched through the memories of every one with even a slight medical background that he ever consumed, which numbered in the thousands. Each and every one said the same thing about what he was seeing. This was not what an adult should look like through thermal imaging, in fact Dana's thermals matched that of someone around eleven to fourteen years old.

This couldn't be. It was a biological impossibility, hell it broke the laws of physics! A human could not age backwards, let alone so rapidly! It had to have been only a few hours as the sun was still up and Dana showed no signs of dehydration or malnourishment, and such a process, were it possible, would take weeks.

There were cases in nature of certain species of animals being able to essentially reverse their ageing by turning their old and aged cells into young cells, but that phenomenon couldn't explain this! How had Dana become smaller? She would have had to have lost mass in the process or become very dense, matter doesn't just disappear! Such an event would break the physical law of conservation in that, neither matter nor energy could be created nor destroyed only converted to a different from.

It just couldn't be, and yet the proof was staring him in the face. How the hell would he be able to explain this to her? Was this even her? It had to be. Was any of this real, or did that strange field actually manage to kill him? He honestly doubted it but at this point who could tell.

"Uh... Shit. This will be hard to believe, but your going to have to believe me, okay?" Alex told her, releasing her shoulders and standing up.

Dana stood up as well "Oookay. What is it?" she asked curiously. "Holy shit! Why are you so big?" She exclaimed, noticing their now more pronounced height difference as she stood up entirely.

"That's, uhh... That's what I wanted to explain. Your kind of... a kid again. Around eleven to fourteen to be exact." Alex stated bluntly, not knowing how else to explain.

"Alex, I know your basically a super virus and are immune to most if not all drugs, but I am pretty sure your high right now." Dana deadpanned, crossing her arms.

"I'm not high, and I'm not joking. Get out your cellphone and look at yourself." He told her.

"Fine, whatever." Dana huffed in annoyance. She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out the remains of her cellphone. It was in ruins, crushed by the fall. "Son of a bitch! That phone was expensive, damn it!" Dana raged at the sight of the ruined phone. She threw the pieces full force at a wall and leaving them there. "I guess that plan wont work." She growled.

Alex sighed and morphed his arm into a larger version of it's sword form to act as a makeshift mirror. "Here, look." he said frustratedly.

"Fine, but I don't see what you hope to achieve by keeping... this... up." Dana stopped, her face going completely blank as if trying to make up her mind on how to react. In Alex's sword arm she saw her self wearing her pink and blue sweater, but that's not what shocked her. She was now looking at a younger version of her self.

"Wha... how... why?" Dana struggled trying to understand, not really upset but more confused. "Huh. Looks like you weren't kidding. How did this happen though?" She asked him. For a second time she surprised Alex by how well she reacted to strange and traumatic news and events.

Alex morphed his arm back into it's base form. "I don't know, but I promise we'll find a way to fix this, but first we need to get out of here." Alex stated. Thinking back though, he remembered the flash just before his cells shut down in what he assumed to be a self defense mechanism knocking him out, in a sense. He got the feeling that it must be some how responsible for his sister's transformation though as to how, he had no idea.

She stared at him in confusion. "Can't you just pick me up and jump through that hole in the ceiling?" she asked.

"Unfortunately not. There is some kind of energy field preventing anything from exiting through there, making it essentially a one way entrance. I tried pulling you up through it and... well... lets just say that's how I ended up down here with you. Though I do have a feeling it may have something to do with making you a kid again, but I can't honestly be sure. So were going to need to find another way out." Alex explained.

"Fuck. Things always just go from bad to worse." Dana groaned. Looking to the side she noticed a rather large path forward. "Looks like we'll have to go through there. Come on Alex, we might as well get going."


	2. Chapter 2: Horrible First Impressions

**My notes: Thank you for all the positive feedback, I really appreciate it! I am glad you guys like the story, so far! I hope you all continue to enjoy my work. Please leave a review telling me what you think and if I made any mistakes, I love hearing what you guys have to say!**

 **Replies to Reviews:**

 **89ingenting: Thank you, I am glad you like it, so far! Thank you for pointing that out to me, by the way. I must have missed that when I was editing the chapter, sorry about that.**

 **Noob6: Thanks, and I will! Unfortunately, no. Neither Frisk nor Chara will appear in this story. Chara will be mentioned, like they are in the pacifist run, but that will be the extent of it. As for Frisk, they are not going to be in this story period. Dana is kind of replacing Frisk, thus why I had her wear a pink and blue striped sweater as well as why I made her a kid again. Chara _might_ make an appearance if I do a genocide version of this story, which I am still debating, but no guarantees. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or Undertale**

Alex and Dana finally came to the end of the tunnel and discovered yet another opening, though this one was very different in that it was carved in the shape of an ornate door frame.

"Well I can't say I expected to find anything like this down here." Dana commented idly.

Alex ignored the door frame, only taking it too mean there could be potential danger ahead. He stared into the next room, scanning it with his standard, thermal, and viral visions. He saw nothing except another door on the other side of the room and a small patch of grass with a single golden flower in the middle of the room. He smelled for any poisons, gases, or other hidden chemical traps, but again detected nothing. He finally relented, deciding there was nothing there after all.

"It should be safe, I can't detect any traps. Stay alert though, we still know nothing about this place." He told Dana, who just rolled her eyes at her brother's behavior. They both walked in and made it about a quarter of the way through when they were stopped by a strange voice.

"Howdy" It said, immediately putting Alex on guard. "I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!"

Both Dana and Alex immediately looked down at the flower in the middle of the patch of grass, illuminated by another hole in the ceiling. They saw it looking back at them, with it's eyes. Flowers weren't supposed to have eyes, or a mouth for that matter, or teeth in said mouth which it was using to smile at them innocently.

"Does that flower have a face, and did it just talk to us?" Dana asked Alex, unsure if she was finally going insane or not.

"Yes and yes." Flowey chuckled, seemingly amused by her question.

The siblings had two very different reactions to this. Alex immediately felt his tendrils begin to thrash internally. It was a fight to keep from consuming the little plant on the spot. He usually avoided consuming plant life due to the fact that he had a hard time integrating them into his biomass, though he could do it. In this case, however, he desperately wanted to make an exception so he could study this things DNA and find out how it works. How was it even sentient, let alone intelligent? He only held back because he knew Dana would be upset with him if he attacked this thing without provocation, even if it wasn't human.

Dana, however, was stuck trying to decide whether it was cute or creepy. On one hand she found it absolutely adorable, on the other hand something about it's beady black eyes was extremely unsettling. She settled on cute. After Greene, hardly anything scared her anymore. Compared to her, a little talking flower was nothing.

"You're both new to the underground, aren't 'cha? Golly, you two must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do." Flowey chimed happily.

All of Alex's instincts shouted at him not to trust this thing, that it was lying to him and Dana, that it was dangerous. This thing was acting too nice, too innocent. It was far too eager with it's offer to help them. This reeked of a trap to him.

"Uh, yeah were new down here, I guess. Your really willing to help us out, so easily? We don't have much to give you in return." Dana told Flowey, far more open minded then Alex, though she was still slightly suspicious herself.

"Of course I am!" Flowey smiled. "Also, I am doing this out of the kindness of my heart, I can't let a couple of strangers like yourselves continue on without teaching you how the underground works! So no need to worry about repaying me." Flowey stated innocently.

"How generous of you." Alex scowled, crossing his arms."Unfortunately, we can't take you up on that. Not to be rude but me and my sister need to keep moving." He grabbed Dana's wrist, despite her objections, and started towards the door. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Flowey's face became frustrated for a moment before returning to it's usual smile quickly enough to go unnoticed by Dana, though not by Alex who's senses were far superior to a normal human. The expression solidified the thought that the flower was trying to deceive them, in Alex's mind.

Small vines came up out of the ground and wrapped around Alex's ankle, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. He wondered if he should just shred them and bolt out of there carrying Dana, to keep her out of danger or if he should see where this was going so he would know what to expect later on if they ran into anything else like this flower creature. He decided to see what this thing was capable of. Such knowledge would make it easier to defend his sister later if they ran into any other sentient plant things down here, or whatever else. Besides, he was confident in his ability to keep her safe if this thing did turn out to be hostile.

"Hold on!" Flowey pleaded. "Please, it won't take long I swear. There are just a few basic things I want to teach you. You don't want to get in trouble because you made a mistake that you could have avoided, right?" Flowey continued to smile.

"Come on. It seems nice enough, and it says it wants to help us. I say we could at least give it a chance." Dana chided Alex, thinking he was just being paranoid.

Alex huffed, seemingly in annoyance, and said, "Fine. Well listen to what it has to say." He had already decided that it would be best to see what Flowey could do so he could know how to counter it or similar things later, but he thought it best to act irritated and suspicious so as to not draw suspicion. He didn't want the Flower catching on to what he was doing. Fortunately he was very likely the best actor in the world, he had to be to keep up disguises and infiltrate top secret bases as he use to, so this was child's play for him.

"Wonderful!" Flowey beamed. "Ready? Here we go!"

Suddenly two glowing hearts appeared in front of Alex and Dana, one floating in front of each of them at about chest height. Dana's was bright red and healthy looking, while Alex's was pure black. They were both shocked by the hearts sudden appearance.

"Whoa! This is so cool!" Dana exclaimed excitedly before reaching out to touch hers. Her hand passed right through it without doing anything. That did nothing to squelch her excitement and curiosity, however.

Alex simply stared at his, wondering what the hell was going on. Normally he would assume they were some sort of holograms, but as there was nothing around that would indicate such, that he could see, he had no idea what any of this was.

"These are your SOULS, the very culmination of your beings." Flowey explained, earning a death-glare from Alex, and a skeptical look from Dana, both of which he ignored.

 _'Is this thing serious?'_ Alex thought. He couldn't see any signs that it was lying or joking, currently. _'It has to be lying. Magic and souls don't exist.'_ Even still doubt in that claim began to permeate his mind. He couldn't see anything in the room that would indicate technology was the cause, so what could it be? He had no answer. What if it was telling the truth, right now? Alex didn't like that idea in the least. If it hurt Dana or damaged her soul in any way shape or form, he would make sure it's death was slow and agonizing as physically possible.

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain lots of LV." Flowey explained, cheerfully.

"What's LV?" Dana inquired curiously.

"Why, LOVE, of course!" Flowey giggled.

Okay, this thing was officially screwing with them, Alex decided.

"You want some LOVE, don't you?" Flowey asked, not giving them time to respond. "Don't worry, I'll share some with you!" He winked, his tongue sticking out the side of his still smiling mouth. Suddenly a tiny star shaped spark appeared above it's head before disappearing. Five small spinning seed shaped things appeared above Flowey's head, in it's place.

"Down here LOVE is shared through... Little white... 'friendliness pellets'." Flowey stated, looking off to the side slightly. The way he said it combined with his expression, immediately telling Alex he was lying.

"Are you ready?" Flowey asked. Suddenly the "friendliness pellets" began moving towards Dana very fast. "Move around! Get as many as you can!" Flowey told them.

Alex's internal alarms were sent screaming to an all time high as the pellets flew towards Dana. "Watch out!" He shouted, jumping in front of her to intercept the pellets, tearing apart the vines that held his ankle. He stopped four of the five, which impacted his head and torso, blowing holes in them. He hit the ground and immediately began regenerating from the damage. The fifth, flying past him despite his best efforts and hitting Dana in the shoulder, causing her to scream in pain as it blasted a hole all the way through. They were about as powerful as nine millimeter bullets.

Dana's scream put Alex in a rage. How dare that weed hut his sister! He was going to tear that weed apart and consume what ever was left! He wanted to hear it scream, to beg for mercy. He would make it suffer.

"You idiots!" Flowey shouted, his face now sporting a large sadistic expression. "In this world, it's kill or BE killed! Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?" His face morphed to become more monstrous in appearance. More magic bullets appeared, encircling Alex and Dana, cutting off any chance at running away that they had. "DIE!" Flowey shouted, his face morphing back into it's previous sadistic expression as he laughed hysterically. The bullets began slowly closing in on Alex and Dana.

Alex didn't know what any of this was, but that didn't matter, because right now, he was pissed. Viral tendrils engulfed him as he morphed into his armored form, transforming his arms into his claws.

The pellets paused for a moment and Flowey stopped laughing, now confused by the sight before him. The big human transformed into a huge black creature with massive sword like claws. Did it even have eyes?! He couldn't tell. Was this thing even human? It certainly wasn't like any monster he had ever seen before. No matter, what ever it was it would die like everyone else. The pellets continued on their path.

"A-Alex?" Dana stuttered from a mix of pain and worry over what was happening. Her voice was too quiet for anybody except for her or Alex to hear.

Alex just stabbed one of his claws into the ground and engulfed Dana in a bullet proof tent of reinforced spikes, ensuring the tent was closed off underground so the flower couldn't use more of it's vines, which it had previously grabbed his ankle with, to attack Dana from below. He also made certain it had just enough space for air to enter and exit on the surface so Dana could breath. He detached the biomass he used to create the tent from his body, and prepared to pounce on the flower so he could rip it to pieces.

He was just about to throw himself at the flower when the pellets disappeared, confusing both him and Flowey. "What!" Flowey hissed angerly. A fire ball suddenly appeared out of no where and hit the flower, tearing it out of the ground and sending it flying into the shadows of the room. Alex immediately scanned for it with his thermal vision, but failed to find either the freshly uprooted flower or it's ashes. It just disappeared, along with the heart floating in front of him.

Enraged at the loss of his newest prey, he looked around the room to search for anything that may have created the fireball. On the other side of the room, another creature entered through a door frame. This one was a nine foot tall humanoid goat like creature in purple robes, with a strange symbol on the chest. It looked slightly angry it's self.

"What a horrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth." It said to it's self, it's voice indicating it was a female, if it's species abided by the same biological rules as humans, that is.

Alex readied himself to pounce again. If this thing also attacked him or if it got too close he would not hesitate to tear it to pieces as well.

She stopped a few feet from the door seeing Alex facing her, claws outstretched and ready to pounce. "You have nothing to fear from me, clawed one. I merely wish to see if the human you were protecting was harmed, and heal her if necessary." She stated, trying to make her tone as calming as possible. She took another step closer and Alex manipulated his cells to emit a loud screeching hiss, tensing further. This caused the creature to stop dead in her tracks.

He considered killing the creature now. She was a potential threat to Dana's safety, despite her claims to the contrary, and he was _very_ reluctant to risk anything at the moment. Especially since Dana was already wounded at the moment. He could hear her shouting from the inside of her armored tent and kicking at the walls, wanting to be let out, but he refused to release her until he knew there were no more threats to her life. He would have to be fast though, because the wound she received was pretty bad and he didn't want her bleeding to death either.

He was on the verge of deciding to eliminate the goat person when she spoke again, after seeing that he refused to let her get any closer without a fight. "I see... I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins. I pass through this place every day to see if anyone has fallen down." This did not help her case any in Alex's mind. "Please excuse my rudeness, but, what kind of monster are you, if I may ask? I have never seen anyone else like you before." She asked kindly.

The way she said that confused him. Did these things call themselves monsters? Her wording seemed to indicate as much. Well that fucking flower just proved that magic and souls existed, why not monsters too?

Tendrils engulfed Alex as he morphed back into his human form and stood up straight, pretending to relax and let his guard down, though he still kept his claws. He did this as a kind of test. If she was really a threat, this "Toriel" would see this as an opportunity to attack him while he was vulnerable.

Toriel seemed confused at first until she realized that he must be warming up to her. It happened much faster then she had initially anticipated, seeing how aggressive he was acting at first.

"Monster, huh? I'm guessing that's what you and that flower thing call yourselves? How fitting." Alex commented, crossing his arms.

Toriel was confused yet again, and very slightly offended, though she didn't take his words to heart under the current circumstances. "Yes, indeed... I take it you are not a monster then? Strange, I have never known a human to be able to change their form as you do."

"I'm a shape shifter, let's just leave it at that for now." Alex told her.

"Very well then..." Toriel stated, unsure of what to do next. The child he was protecting was very likely in need of medical attention but she got the feeling that he wasn't going to let her near them any time soon.

"So. You just gonna stand there, or are you going to leave? My sister was wounded and I need to help her, soon." Alex stated, walking backwards towards the spikes, before leaning on them. He could hear Dana yelling at him from inside the tent, it was far from sound proof.

"I'm sorry?" Toriel asked, taken aback by his blatantly rude behavior and out right dismissal of her and her offer of assistance. "I... I would like to assist you. I can heal her if you would just let me, besides which she seems to want to be let out."

"No." Alex stated bluntly, amused by the look on Toriel's face at that one simple word. She was apparently not used to being told, no, by anyone. "The last monster that offered to help us ended up trying to kill us and succeeded in blasting a hole through her shoulder. Why the hell would I trust you or any other monster after that? I would have to be stupid to take down those spikes and leave her vulnerable with one of you around, whether she wants me to or not." He scowled.

She almost seemed hurt by his words. "Surely you will not base your entire opinion of us on the actions of one misguided creature?! I can assure you, most monsters are completely harmless!"

"Yeah, words are cheap lady. Say what ever you want, that doesn't mean I have to believe you. You pose a clear and obvious threat to my sister, even if you say you want to heal her." Alex told her, nonchalantly. Tendrils engulfed his arms as he morphed them back to their base form, getting sick of keeping his claws out.

Toriel seemed at a loss as to what to say for a moment. Finally her face brightened and she said. "You are correct, you do not have to believe me, but if I really meant you or your sister any harm, would I not have attacked you by now?"

Alex shrugged, "It could be an act to make me let my guard down just like that flower."

"Very well, but why would I have helped you instead of allowing you both to tire each other out before killing all three of you, if I were as dangerous or violent as you seem to make me out to be?" Toriel asked, upset that she had to speak of such things instead of helping the wounded girl this man was trying to protect.

Alex struggled to find a reasonable answer.

"Well?" Toriel asked cautiously, not wanting to provoke him.

"I'm thinking, damn it!" Alex half shouted in frustration. His arms were no longer crossed as he paced in a small area in front of the tent. "Fuck! I don't fucking know!" Even the memories of the thousands of people he had consumed couldn't provide him with a reasonable answer. She had him in a corner with shear logic!

Toriel cringed at his casual use of foul language but decided not to comment so as to not offend him any more. "Will you allow me heal her?" She asked tiredly, almost ready to give up knowing how stubborn humans could be when they wanted to, and this one seemed exceptional in that aspect.

If he had teeth in the way humans did, they would have been powder at that point from how hard he would be grinding them. Dana was hurt badly, and all he could really do was use thin strands of dead or inert biomass to try and sew up the wound, or maybe tear the sleeve off her sweater and tie it around her shoulder to act as a rag or bandage, and hopefully keep her from bleeding out. He could always infect her with his strain of Blacklight, but he could never actually bring himself to do that to her, not in reality.

Needless to say he had very limited options, and here was someone who was offering to actually heal her for him through what he assumed was magic, which was just something he couldn't do. All his arguments against it were obliterated at this point.

Damn it! He should have made the tent of spikes around Dana sound proof so he could consume this creature with out her ever learning of it's presence, but that would have required him to make it airtight and he had no idea Toriel even existed until he made it. As it was though, Dana definitely heard their conversation, just as they had heard her shouting. If he consumed Toriel at this point to gain the knowledge and ability to use magic, without her attacking him first, Dana would be furious with him.

"Shit..." Alex cursed, he was in a box here and he couldn't see any way out. "Fine!" he growled furiously, morphing his arm into it's sword form. "But I'll be watching the entire thing. If I see even a hint that you are even _thinking_ of hurting her, you will be dead faster then you can blink." He threatened, placing his normal hand on the spikes before pulling all of the biomass used to create them back into his body.

Toriel seemed relieved that he finally relented, though she ignored his threats. She began walking towards him and Dana

Dana stumbled forward holding her shoulder, having the wall she was about to kick suddenly disappear. Her sweater was stained with blood and there was a red puddle where she use to be standing. "Finally!" she stated, after regaining her balance. "I know you heard me shouting from in there. Why didn't you let me out sooner! Flowey was gone already, I know that because I heard your conversation with Toriel!" She shouted, looking at Alex.

"You heard what we were saying, so you should know already. I didn't think it was safe, in fact I still don't, but we don't have many options and unfortunately she destroyed my arguments against letting her try to heal you." Alex shrugged, never taking his eyes off Toriel as she walked through the room.

"You can be a real jerk sometimes, you know that? Not every one is a threat!" Dana scolded him, only slightly upset with him. Looking at Toriel, who was walking towards her, she said, "Sorry about my brother. He can be pretty aggressive sometimes, especially when it comes to trying to protect me."

"Not to worry my child I understand his drive to defend his loved ones, very well. I can not say I would not have acted similarly were I in his place." Toriel stated, now kneeling down in front of Dana. "I am sorry but I must ask you to move your hand so I can see the wound." She told Dana, who was still clutching her shoulder.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Dana apologized. She hissed in pain as she took her hand off her shoulder. Blood spilled from it as soon as she did.

"Oh dear, this is worse then I expected!" Toriel exclaimed after examining the wound. "That wretched thing. How dare it do something like this to one so young and innocent as yourself! This will only take a moment, I promise you wont feel a thing."

Alex raised his sword arm, ready to behead her if she hurt Dana any worse or made any sudden moves.

Toriel raised her claws to the wound, though she did not touch it. Suddenly, green light began emanating from her claws and into Dana's shoulder. a few moments later the wound began to close, seemingly on it's own, as did the hole in Dana's sweater and shirt. After both were fully closed, the blood on Dana's clothes also began to disappear. Soon the green light faded and Toriel stood back up.

"Wow, It's good an new! Thank you for healing me, and thank you for fixing my clothes too." Dana thanked her, still amazed at the existence of magic.

"It was no trouble, my child, I am happy to help." Toriel stated happily.

Alex morphed his arm back into it's base form and finally started to relax, though he still kept his guard up, he still didn't trust this lady yet. "Thanks for the help, I guess. I don't know if I would have been able to do much for her my self." He told Toriel. "I suppose I should apologize. Sorry for being so rude and aggressive towards you. This was just a bad situation. I hope I didn't offend you." He apologized, sounding completely sincere despite the fact he didn't mean a word of it. He only apologized at all because he knew Dana would make him later if he didn't do so now, hopefully it would also serve make her less angry with him.

Toriel looked at him happily. "It is quite alright, human, I took no offense. I understand that this must be a difficult situation for you and your sister. I only hope you will trust me eventually." She stated. "Let us move on to other things. You know, you two are the first humans to come down here in a long time. This is no place to talk though. Come, I shall guide you through the catacombs." She said, before turning and walking towards the door she came through.

Dana began to follow her, while Alex just stood where he was. Seeing her brother still being stubborn Dana looked back as she continued walking and said, "Come on, she's trying to help us, besides there is only one way for us to go."

Alex clenched his fists in frustration. Dana was right, there was only one way to go, and that meant they had no choice but to follow the goat for now. That didn't mean he had to like it though! He reluctantly began trailing after them, quickly catching up with Dana.


	3. Chapter 3

**My notes: Well this took a while to get out. Sorry about that. Life happens. Hopefully I can get the next chapter out soon, but we'll see. Anyways, hope this chapter was worth the wait, though I very much doubt that it is. Well, hopefully you guys enjoy it at least.**

 **Reviews: Noob6: I love questions! No he wouldn't have the power to do so, as he consumes people's bodies not their souls. He gets their memories through their brains. Plus he can't use magic. As for his LV, it would be at 9999. The same number as when Flowey takes over the game, as I assume that is the maximum. It will work in the pacifist run because he's not the "Frisk" of the story, so to speak. Plus, he's not going to kill anyone... possibly. His soul doesn't represent anything, just like the white of monster souls don't represent anything. He's not human after all, but he's no monster either. He's just Blacklight. I am _thinking_ genocide would work with Flowey killing Dana in the beginning and Alex going insane as a result (Maybe even consuming her soul by mistake), though the Chara influencing Dana thing sounds cool too. **

**moosejuice5: No, he's very smart, he has the combined intellect of dozens if not hundreds of scientists, he just didn't think of every angle. He was under a lot of stress at that point after all.**

 **NecrorexSparda: Thank you, and nope it's not dead. It's just verrry delayed.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or Undertale.**

Following Toriel out of the room Alex and Dana were met with the sight of stairs leading up to the entrance of what they assumed must be the ruins Toriel told them about. The sight was impressive to Dana. Alex couldn't care less about it, he was more concerned with watching for any more potential threats. His sister was already hurt once because he was caught off guard, he refused to let it happen again.

As they got closer to the stares, at the top of which Toriel waited patently for them, Dana noticed a strange star like object floating above a pile of dead leafs in between the two sets of stairs. "What is that?" She wondered aloud, walking over to it.

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked her. "I don't see anything." He stated, looking at the pile of leafs she was standing in front of. He switched to his thermal vision, still seeing nothing he switched back to his standard vision.

"Are you kidding me? You don't see the weird floating star thing?" Dana deadpanned, giving him annoyed look.

"Dana, I honestly can't see anything. There's nothing there." he told her, starting to get worried. Maybe he shouldn't have let Toriel heal her. It might be fine for monsters, but who knows what effect magic could have on a human. It could range anywhere from being absolutely harmless, to causing temporary hallucinations, to causing schizophrenia or full on psychosis. He had to hope that whatever it was, if anything, wasn't permanent. He couldn't fix it if it had affected her brain any, not without killing or infecting her at least. Hell he didn't even know if it _could_ be fixed!

"I'm telling you it's there! Look, it's right here." Dana reached out to grab it and prove her point. As soon as her hand made contact with it, a strange feeling came over her. She looked at Alex and saw how concerned he was for her health, it filled her with determination. HP fully restored. Progress saved. "Whoa." Dana stated, raising a hand to her head in surprise.

"Are you alright?" Alex questioned, more worried then ever.

"Yeah..." Dana responded distantly. Shaking her head to clear it, she said, "I mean, I'm fine. Just... wow, what a rush. When I touched it, I got this strange feeling and suddenly I couldn't feel the bruises I got from the fall any more. Toriel only healed my shoulder. I think something else happened too, but I don't know what it was."

Alex was confused. If whatever she was talking about actually healed her, that meant one of two things that he could think of, maybe three. His first idea was that whatever it was actually existed and he just couldn't see it. The second possibility was that the flash he saw just before his cells shutdown had some how given her magical abilities and this was just her brain's attempt to manifest them in a way she could understand. It could also have been due to repeated exposure to magic.

Alex sighed, this was just one more thing he would have to keep an eye on down here. Hopefully it was just temporary and he wouldn't have to worry about it. "Alright, I believe you." he stated.

"Damn it Alex, it's right fucking th... Wait, you believe me?" Dana reeled in shock. "Who are you and what have you done with Alex?" She joked.

"Look, under normal circumstances I would just think you were hallucinating, but these aren't normal circumstances." Alex explained. "Dana, for the first time I honestly don't understand what we are dealing with. Souls, magic, monsters, murderous plant life, and for fuck sake you're a kid again! None of this makes any sense. For all I know, you may have some latent mystical ability that I lack, so yes I believe you." He growled in frustration.

Dana looked up at him, worry in her eyes. "Are you going to be okay, Alex?" she inquired, her concern clear in her voice. She hated seeing her big brother like this.

Alex looked at the ground. "Yeah, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. This has just been a stressful situation." He sighed quietly.

Regathering himself, he looked back up at Dana. "Listen, we have to be extremely careful with this magic stuff while were down here, until we understand it better at the very least. I don't want you getting hurt or killed because we made a mistake. Just tell me if you notice anymore changes or if you see any more of these 'stars' or anything like them, okay?" He requested.

Dana shrugged. "Alright I guess. As long as you do the same and try to relax a little. It's not as if every little flower wants to kill us or something." She smirked.

"Verry funny, Dana." Alex said sarcastically. "Alright then, let's get moving. Our guide is waiting for us."

"Wait, should we tell Toriel about this or what? She might be able to tell us what this thing is or what it does." Dana asked.

Alex stayed silent for a moment. On one hand, the monster could be a valuable source of information and could possibly teach them quite a bit about magic. She had proven trust worthy, helpful even, so far and hadn't done anything to draw suspicion just yet. On the other hand, she was still a stranger, an unknown variable. He had no idea how she would react to this and that made telling her anything a significant risk.

"No, let's keep this to ourselves as much as possible until we get out of here. We can figure this out on our own." He stated. He didn't want to take any risks in a situation like this.

Dana rolled her eyes. "Fiiine." she groaned in irritation. Some times Alex was just way too paranoid, she thought.

They made their way up the stairs. Once they reached the top, they were greeted by a patient smile from Toriel.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, my sister saw something she thought was interesting and wanted to show me." Alex told her.

"That is quite alright, human." Toriel chuckled. "That reminds me. I haven't cleaned up in a while, I was not expecting to have company so soon. There are probably a lot of things laying around." She stated half to herself, as if making a mental note to clean up later. "You may take what ever you like, but don't take more then you can carry. One day you may come across something you really like, you will want to leave room in your pockets for that."

Both Alex and Dana gave her a blank look. Did she really think they would want her trash? Not wanting to be rude, Dana faked a smile and said, "Thank you, we'll keep that in mind."

Toriel turned and walked through the door way next to her, followed closely by the siblings. She lead them through the next two rooms, glossing over puzzles and their use in the ruins. They finally came to a small room with an odd looking training dummy standing next to one of the walls.

Facing them she said, "Unfortunately, as humans living in the underground monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this eventuality." Glancing at Alex as she spoke, worry clear in her eyes.

Alex glared at her. "I thought you said monsters were harmless." He growled, morphing his hands into claws. He would slaughter anything that dared to even try and attack him, let alone even think about hurting Dana. That flower that attacked them just proved how dangerous these monsters could be in a fight.

"Seriously?!" Dana exclaimed in frustration at her brothers actions. She understood that he was under a lot of stress at the moment, but damn it, he needed to freaking relax! Violence and murder are not always the solution.

"Please, calm down and put your claws away. There is no need for any rash actions, we don't want to hurt anyone do we? Allow me to explain, I promise you that violence is not necessary." Toriel asked, her hands raised in front of her placatingly. She had to tread carefully at this point, this was a dangerous situation and she didn't want to provoke the human further.

Alex glanced at Dana and saw her staring at him disapprovingly. Looking back at Toriel, he couldn't find any signs that she was lying to them. He hadn't planned on attacking Toriel in the first place, he simply wanted to be prepared in case they were attacked, but looking at the situation he doubted they would believe him if he tried to explain. He didn't seem to have a choice if he didn't want to have Dana to be upset with him.

Morphing his arms back to normal, he said, "Fine, please explain how violence isn't necessary if another monster attacks us. I would love to know, because If I hadn't blocked that fucking weed's magic or if that one pellet I missed had hit in a slightly different area, it could have killed my sister!" Alex spat venomously. "Assuming all monsters can use magic, being attacked by one of you could end in her death before I could do anything to stop it."

"Thank you, but please do calm down." Toriel requested, lowering her hands. "I do understand your concerns about the dangers of fighting monsters based on that creature. However, you both are far more powerful then even the strongest of monsters. In fact it would take all the souls of every monster in the underground to come close to equal a single human soul, even that of a child like your sister."

"In truth, it is completely unheard of for magic to harm anyone physically to such an extreme degree. I had even thought it impossible until I saw what that vile creature did to you, my child." She said, looking at Dana. "While particularly strong magic can cause bruising, it usually only does damage to one's soul..."

"How is that any less dangerous?" Alex cut her off. "That just means they can destroy souls instead of bodies." That was much, much worse in his mind.

"T-that's true." Dana reluctantly agreed, slightly shaken by the information. She didn't even know what happens when a person dies, she didn't want to find out what happened if their soul was completely destroyed.

"As I said, as humans you are far more powerful then any monster, thus most monsters should be harmless to you. Thus why I wish to teach you both what to do in the event that you are attacked even though I am sure you are more then capable of defending yourselves." Toriel explained.

"Now, let us begin. My child, would you please step up to the dummy first? I am confident your brother could greatly benefit from watching you practice first." She requested.

"Uhh, sure." Dana shrugged. She felt Alex's gaze on her as she approached the training dummy.

"Thank you, my child." Toriel smiled warmly at her. "When you are attacked by a monster, you will enter a 'fight'. When this happens, try and strike up a friendly conversation. I will come to resolve the conflict." She explained as Dana's soul appeared once more.

"Alright..." Dana muttered to her self. "Uh... I love your stitching, it really compliments your eyes." She complimented the dummy. It didn't seem much for conversation. Dana's soul once again disappeared.

"Very good! You are very good." Toriel beamed happily. "It is your turn now. Please remember, violence is not always necessary." She said to Alex.

Huffing in irritation, Alex approached the dummy. His own soul appearing as he came close. The dummy seemed like it was about to fall over. Unable to think of anything to say, Alex simply stared at it, unmoving and unblinking. Much to each of their surprise, the dummy eventually began shaking as if in fear. After a moment, a translucent white figure flew out of it screaming in terror before disappearing into a wall.

They all stood in silence for a moment, stunned by what just happened. Alex looked at Toriel, thinking to himself, ' _Well, at least neither of them can complain about me using violence_ '. Dana was on the verge of busting out laughing finding it hilarious, she knew how terrifying Alex could be to strangers. Toriel simply stared blankly at the spot where the figure disappeared.

"Let us move on." Toriel finally said, breaking the silence. In the next room, she informed them of yet another puzzle before walking ahead.

Dana looked at the floor and noticed a strange pattern in the floor. "Hey Alex, you see that pattern on the floor?" She asked.

"Yeah. You think it has something to do with the puzzle Toriel mentioned?" He guessed.

"Yup. Kind of obvious, isn't it? Come on, Toriel is probably waiting for us there." Dana told him, leading the way forward, Alex following closely.

Suddenly a large frog like creature jumped out in front of them, blocking their path. Alex and Dana's souls appeared in front of them. "Damn it!" Alex growled, stepping in front of Dana protectively.

"Wait, Alex, remember what Toriel said, don't hurt it!" Dana told him.

"I won't." Alex stated calmly. "Just trust me."

Suddenly a swarm of glowing white flies appeared around the frog creature before flying towards Alex. Morphing his arm into a shield, he blocked them. Surprisingly he barely felt it when they hit him. He examined the creature, watching for it's next move, it appeared far weaker then either Toriel or Flowey.

Suddenly it pounced at him. Now was his chance. His arm was a blur with speed as he reached out and grabbed the creature by the throat, mid jump. Taking care not to break it's neck or choke it, he brought it's face closer to his own until they were mere inches apart. "Never attack me or my sister again, unless you want to die." He stated threateningly, looking it directly in the eyes.

It didn't seem to understand him but was scared anyways. Alex harshly threw it back on the ground and watched as it got up and hopped away as fast as it could. Both of their souls vanished from sight, and Alex heard Dana sigh in relief. It seemed threats were quite effective on the weaker monsters. He would have to keep that in mind.

Hearing clapping he looked up and saw Toriel standing at the end of the corridor, near a bunch of metal spikes. "Very good! I would have preferred if you weren't so rough, but this is a good start. You didn't even need me to break up the fight! I am very proud of you, human." She smiled.

The siblings walked up to her. "Thanks, I guess." Alex stated, unsure of how exactly to respond. He didn't really care about having Toriel's approval. His sister was safe, that's all that mattered to him.

"I'm proud too!" Dana said, hugging him around the waist. "I told you that you don't always have to resort to killing."

Surprised by this, Alex looked down at her. She must have been really happy with him, he thought. Chuckling to himself in amusement, he raised a hand and messed up her hair.

"Hey!" Dana stated in annoyance, releasing Alex to fix her hair with her hands, as she lacked a comb.

Toriel smiled warmly at the siblings interaction. The spike floor, she had almost forgotten! "Ah yes, this is the puzzle but..." She told them, turning to face the spikes. "Here, my hand for a moment, my child. Please stay close and follow the path I take, human."

Shrugging, Dana grabbed Toriel's hand, staying just behind her. Toriel lead them through the puzzle. Once they all reached the other side she released Dana's hand. "It seems puzzles are too dangerous for now." She noted half to herself before continuing on.

She lead them to the end of a long hallway, stopping before they reached the next room. "You have both done excellent thus far. However, I must attend to some business and you must stay alone for a while. Please remain here. It is dangerous to explore by yourselves." She stated.

Alex rolled his eyes. Dangerous? He highly doubted that claim. The only thing they had ran into down here so far that was truly dangerous was that flower, and it was dead next time he saw it. Though that didn't mean he would let his guard down. "Fine. We'll wait here for a while." He stated. It wasn't like they had much choice, Toriel was their best bet at finding a way out.

Dana shrugged, not really caring either way.

"I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone." Toriel told them, reaching into a difficult to see pocket of her robe and pulling out an old flip phone. "If you need anything, just call." She held it out to them.

Dana took the flip phone and examined it. It wasn't as fancy as her phone used to be, but it would still work as a replacement until she could buy a new one. "Thank you." she smiled gratefully at Toriel.

"Both of you be good, alright?" she asked them.

Alex just waved a hand in acknowledgement, while Dana nodded at her.


	4. Chapter 4: The Ruins

**My notes: Sorry this chapter is so long guys. I just didn't want to spend five chapters getting through the ruins in detail since almost nothing really interesting happens in them. They are just meant to be a tutorial in the game after all. Either way, I tried my best. I hope it doesn't come off as too crude or rushed. Sorry if it does, hopefully the future chapters wont be as bad. Well, either way, please leave a review if you want to, it should help me improve my writing in the future.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Diamondfiend: I'm glad you enjoy my story! And yeah, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I'm aware of this issue and am trying to work on it. It's a bit of complacency in my writing and editing. Sorry about that. Also, that is a good suggestion! I honestly would never have thought of that! I hope you like what I came up with for it!**

 **xXx: Thank you! Yeah, the genocide route seems really easy to wright since Alex could just slaughter everything. This is more fun though, and I feel like people probably just enjoy it more in general. I'm happy you like it so far.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either Prototype or Undertale.**

They had been waiting for about thirty minutes according to the clock on the cell phone Toriel gave her, and Dana was starting to get bored. She and Alex had just been sitting there in silence waiting for Toriel the entire time, and there wasn't even anything for her to do! It had become very apparent to her that it wasn't just her body that had been turned back into a child, but her patience and attention span as well. The wait felt like days to her even though it had only been a few minutes.

"Aaalllex, I'm bored!" She whined at her older brother, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, on the other side of the room.

Resting his face in the palm of his hand, Alex huffed in annoyance. "Seriously, Dana? Just look through the phone the goat lady gave you, or something. I thought those old flip phones usually came with games installed on them." He couldn't believe it. Dana whined at him like a little kid. Had her brain become younger too? He shouldn't have been surprised he supposed. If the rest of her body had been made younger, it would stand to reason that her brain would have been as well.

"I didn't even think of that!" Dana stated, her face brightening in excitement. She hadn't looked through the phone since Toriel gave it to her except to add Alex's number to her contact list, even though his phone was probably still at their camp on the surface. The chance it might have a game on it or some music she could listen to, at the very least, hadn't even crossed her mind.

Pulling the phone out of her pocket she flipped it open and began trying look through it. Much to her disappointment she quickly found the phone was not just devoid of apps but was completely incapable of using them at all. The most she was able to do was open up the settings which consisted of changing the ringtone and it's volume and setting it to vibrate.

Sighing defeatedly she closed the phone and let herself slide down the wall she was sitting against until she was halfway laying down. This absolutely sucked. How long would they half to wait until Toriel came back, she wondered.

After a few more minutes had gone by, Dana was tired of waiting. Standing up and starting towards the door she said, "Alright. Let's get moving."

"Wait, where are you going? Toriel told us to wait here." Alex stated. Uncrossing his arms he stood up straight and moved to catch up with her.

"I know, I know!" Dana said, stopping and giving him an annoyed look. "But I'm bored and she's taking forever! Plus, if we catch up to her we may be able to help with whatever she's doing. Besides, staying here isn't getting us out of here any faster." She told him.

"Fine. I would have suggested ditching her as soon as she left if you didn't like her so much. I thought you wanted to stay put until she came back." Alex shrugged.

"And you were right, until she made us wait half a fricking hour." Dana stated irritatedly.

"Alright, let's go then." Alex said indifferently.

As they were about to leave, Alex heard a faint rustling sound from behind them. Stopping dead in his tracks he turned and looked towards the source. His eyes widened in rage as he saw the same flower that attacked them earlier. Unfortunately, it disappeared into the ground before he had a chance to attack it.

Frustrated beyond belief he turned and began following Dana once more, fortunately she failed to notice his pause. He would have to be extra careful from here on out, knowing that stupid weed was following them. He wouldn't let it hurt Dana again.

They didn't get far before Dana's cell phone rang. "Hello?" She said, stopping to answer it.

 _"Hello, my child. I'm just calling to tell you I am almost done with my errands. Oh, and to make sure you haven't left the room yet. There are a few puzzles ahead I have yet to explain. It could be dangerous for you and your brother to try solving them by your selves."_ Toriel's voice said over the phone.

"Really? Uh... Well don't worry about us, we're fine." Dana responded awkwardly, trying to avoid telling Toriel that they had left. "Anyways, since we're talking, why don't you tell us more about yourself? Here, I put it on speaker phone so Alex can hear you too." She asked, trying to change the topic.

 _"I'm glad to hear that. As for me, there really isn't much to say I'm afraid. I'm just a silly little lady that worries too much."_ Toriel chuckled over the phone.

"Hey, don't sell your self short!" Dana told her. "You seem like an awesome person. I'm sure there are tons of interesting things about you!" A mischievous grin spread across Dana's face. "In fact, you should totally date my brother. You two would be a perfect match for each other!"

Alex silently glared daggers at Dana, unable to think of any good way to respond that wouldn't embarrass him somehow. She would pay for that comment, he would make sure of it. He just had to think of some way that wouldn't actually physically hurt her. Fortunately he had the memories of dozens of older brothers and knew an arsenal of tricks that were absolutely harmless.

 _"O-Oh my."_ Toriel said over the phone, though quickly she began chuckling. _"Hee... hee. Ha ha ha! How adorable... I could pinch your cheek! I'm sure your brother could find some one better then an old woman like me."_ She stated, dismissing the notion.

"Oh, come on. You don't seem that old!" Dana told her. "But, oh well I guess. You're way out of his league anyways."

"Alright, that's enough." Alex announced, grabbing the phone out of Dana's hand and immediately turning the speaker phone off. "Sorry about that." He apologized to Toriel. "My sister is always does this kind of thing, don't mind her."

 _"Not to worry. It was rather endearing, honestly."_ Toriel chuckled. _"Well I have to get back to my errands. Keep her out of trouble please, thank you."_

"Alright, bye." Alex stated. Hanging up, he closed the phone and handed it back to Dana. "Don't do that again, understand?" He commanded harshly.

"I was just joking..." Dana huffed. Alex continued silently glaring at her until she finally relented. "Fine... I'm sorry, Alex. It won't happen again..." She sighed.

"Good. Now let's g... Damn it, how many of these things are there?" He growled as another frog creature hopped up to them. He motioned to get in front of Dana to protect her but stopped when she held an arm out to block him.

"Wait, stop. It's not attacking us, our souls haven't appeared yet. Just let me handle this. In fact, just let me deal with any monsters that _do_ attack us. Not that you didn't do a good job last time, but you can be pretty aggressive. You might kill one by accident." Dana told him.

"Out of the question!" Alex declared. "I don't want to risk you getting hurt."

"Look, remember what Toriel said? Monsters are harmless to humans." Dana said, confident she would be fine. Seeing the stubborn look on Alex's face she sighed sadly. "Do you really think that little of me? Don't you trust me?"

"That's an unfair question and you know it." Alex said quietly. "Of course I trust you. It's just that your so..." He had no good way of finishing that sentence without sounding insulting. Humans in general were just so weak and pathetic, and Dana was still just a human. He didn't want her getting killed. Looking at her now though, seeing how determined she was and how hurt she looked, he couldn't stop himself.

Sighing he finally conceded. "Okay... I trust you. Just... be careful, okay?" He told her. He would still intervene if they ran into anything too dangerous, or if that flower ever came back, but he would let her do what she wanted for now.

Dana hugged him around the waist again. "Thank you, Alex." Letting him go, she walked up to the frog creature. "Uh. Hi buddy, what do you want?" She asked it.

"Ribbit ribbit. I have some advice for you about battling monsters, human. If you Act in a certain way or Fight until you almost defeat them, they may not want to battle you any more. If a monster doesn't want to fight, please use some Mercy, human. Ribbit." It croaked at her. With that, it hopped away.

 _'Better not tell Alex about the fighting part, or he might take that as an excuse to attack them.'_ She decided mentally.

"Hey, another of those star things!" She announced, seeing one in another leaf pile on the other side of the room. Walking over to it, she reached out and touched it. The same odd sensation as before coursed through her as her hand made contact. Getting such helpful advice from that nice frog monster filled her with determination. HP fully restored. Progress saved.

"So it wasn't just a one time thing..." Alex said disappointedly, walking up to her. At this point, he discarded the hope that it was just a hallucination. If it had only been that first one, that would have been one thing, but two in a row in such close proximity to each other?

"Guess not. Oh well." Dana shrugged.

Continuing on, they walked into the closest door to them. Inside a bowl of what looked like candy with a note attached to it, sat on a small pedestal in the middle of the room.

"Take one." Dana read. "Don't mind if I do." She said to her self as she reached out to do just that.

Alex grabbed her arm before she could. "Not a chance. Your still in trouble for that stunt on the phone earlier." Taking one with his free hand, he stuffed it in his pocket. "If your good you can have this one later."

"Alex, I am a grown woman damn it! You can't tell me what I can and can't have!" Dana objected.

"But you're not a grown woman anymore, now are you? You're somewhere between ten and fourteen, and until we find a way to return you to your proper age I'm responsible for you. So yeah I can tell you what you can and can't have, for now at least. Also, watch your mouth. I don't want to hear you cursing until you're older." Alex told her, smirking to himself.

"But... I... You can't... This is so unfair!" Dana exclaimed.

"Life's not fair." Alex chuckled, thoroughly enjoying this. Not wanting any further argument, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, ignoring her protests as he carried her out of the room. Once they were back in the room with the star thing, he finally set her back on the ground. She glared indignantly at him but didn't say a word, instead turning to walk to the last door in the room.

Grumbling to her self as she walked she failed to notice the cracks in the floor. Not realizing it, she stepped on one of the cracks and the floor gave out beneath her. "Whoa!" she shouted as she began falling. Before she fell even half way through the hole however, something gripped her by the shoulders and pulled her back up onto solid ground.

"Careful, I'm not letting you fall down any more holes after what happened last time." Alex joked, releasing her once again. "See the cracks on the ground? I guess the floor is damaged or something, but I think we can just jump over this."

Alex jumped over with ease, while Dana barely made it across.

Continuing forward Toriel called them once again. _"Excuse me humans,"_ she said over the speaker phone. _"I know this may sound odd but which do you two prefer, cinnamon or butterscotch?"_

"I like cinnamon, personally." Dana stated, wondering why Toriel would call just to ask about their preferences.

"The same, I guess." Alex told her simply. He could eat like a human when he wanted to, and that included tasting his food. Generally he didn't care but he had to admit, certain things did taste better then others when he ate like that. He could even eat everything a human could, and more technicaly, he just preferred meat for how simple and easy it was to integrate into his biomass.

Toriel thanked them before hanging up. Before they could take more then a few steps, however, she called them again. _"Neither of you DISLIKE butterscotch, do you? I know what your preference is but... Would you turn your nose up if you found it on your plate?"_ She asked.

"Nope." Dana answered for the both of them.

 _"Right, right, I understand. Thank you for being patient, by the way."_ She said, before hanging up again.

They solved the next puzzle in seconds. Alex simply picked up a large rock and set it down on the button in the middle of the room, lowering the spikes blocking their path.

Once more Toriel called them before they could get very far. Dana was growing slightly annoyed at this point, and Alex was starting to think Toriel was doing it intentionally to screw with them.

 _"Neither of you have any allergies, do you?"_ She inquired.

"No... Why are you asking?" Alex questioned her.

 _"Huh? Oh, no reason. No reason at all."_ She told him before hanging up again.

They continued on, fully expecting another random call. The next puzzle was the same as the first but this time there were three rocks for Alex to move. He place the first two on their buttons without any trouble. As soon as he tried picking up the last one though, a voice called out, "WHOA there pardner! Who said you could pick me up?"

"Just shut the hell up or I'll smash you to pieces and use the _rubble_ to hold down the button!" Alex growled viciously. The rock promptly grew quiet and let him move it without complaint.

As they continued they found a large area where the entire floor was covered in cracks just like before, completely blocking their path. Alex eyed it in annoyance before morphing his arm into his whip fist and throwing it at the next door. The blades embedded themselves into the solid ground on the other side of the door. Morphing his arm he made most of it into a wide flat slab before detaching it from his biomass. Forming a spike on their side of the makeshift path, Alex drove it into the solid ground to secure the entire thing in place for them to cross. Once they reached the other side he reattached himself to the biomass and pulled it back into himself.

Finally coming across another star thing in a room with a mouse hole and a piece of cheese stuck to a table. Dana touched the star thing, once again. Knowing the mouse may one day get the cheese filled her with determination. HP fully restored. Progress saved.

Further ahead they found a monster that looked like the stereotypical cartoonish image of a ghost, that was pretending to sleep in the middle of the floor and was blocking the way forward. "Zzzzzz. Are they gone yet?" it whispered to it's self before continuing to say "Z" over and over again in what had to be the worst imitation of snoring either Alex or Dana had ever heard.

"Seriously?" Alex asked no one in particular, getting fed up with all these damn obstacles. "We know you're not actually asleep. Get out of our way!" Alex growled, trying to grab the creature to move it by force, though his hands went right through it. Suddenly both his and Dana's souls appeared in front of them as the ghost now floated upright above the ground.

"Alex, remember what you said earlier. Just let me handle this." Dana stated, stepping in front of him.

Alex hesitated for a moment, but remained where he was. He would only intervene if he had to.

Looking at the ghost, Dana thought it looked sad. Maybe if she could cheer him up, he would leave? "Hey, you seem sad." She told it. "I'm sure you can overcome whatever is bothering you though! You just have to keep trying." She attempted to sound motivational.

A dejected "Heh..." was the ghost's only response. Tears started welling from his eyes before landing on the floor and flowing up the walls of the room on to the roof, before a stream of them began falling towards Dana.

Not sure how to react, she just stood there deciding she could probably take whatever it was. She regretted that decision almost immediately. "Ow!" she hissed in pain. The tears burned like hell, it was like acid or something, though from where they had hit her that she could actually see, mainly her hands, they didn't seem to be doing much to her actual body. What was worse was that they seemed to be draining her energy, she was getting extremely exhausted but even though all she was doing was standing there. She tried to move to get out of the way, but the tears followed her around, forcing her to keep moving.

Alex was on the verge of jumping in. That "Ow!" was more then enough to set him on edge already, though he gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain put. _'She can handle this. She can handle this.'_ He kept repeating mentally, trying to ignore the viral tendrils thrashing and twisting violently inside him.

Finally the tears ended and Dana was panting in exhaustion. _'Okay,_ _that went horribly. Maybe I should avoid those next time. At least he seems happier.'_ she thought to her self. Maybe she should try flirting to boost it's confidence?

"Wow, your magic sure is strong, and you seem really nice. How about you and me go out some time?" She asked, she would just let him down easily later, if he agreed.

"I would just weigh you down." the ghost moaned. "Sorry I'm not really feeling up to attacking right now." he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear him.

Well that was a good thing at least. She didn't know how much more of his attacks she could take. She was running out of ideas though. Maybe a joke would help him feel better?

"So a human walks into a bar and sees a depressed ghost. She offers to buy the ghost a drink. The ghost asks why. The human told him it was to raise his _spirits._ " Dana stated, smiling exhaustedly at him.

"Heh, heh..." he chuckled slightly, it's mood seeming to brighten again. Tears began welling from it's eyes again, though this time they flew in random directions towards her. She attempted to dodge them this time, though she was unsuccessful for the most part. When ever she dodged one, she would run into another by mistake. Finally she gave out, and collapsed to her hands and knees panting in exhaustion, though the ghost wasn't quite finished.

One final tear hit her and the world began to grow dark. Falling the rest of the way onto her stomach, the last thing she heard was a distant voice yelling, it sounded a lot like Alex for some reason.

(Line Break)

"Dana!" Alex shouted, racing over to his sister's body. Immediately lifting her up and turning her around, he switched to his thermal vision. What he saw horrified him. Her heart wasn't beating. "NO! DON'T YOU DIE ON ME!" He shrieked. Laying her body flat on the ground on her back, he morphed his hands into metallic plates and sent an electrical current through them, an ability he gained from consuming an electric eel from the zoo awhile back. He occasionally used it like a taser to stun people, but currently he was hoping to save his sister's life using a lower voltage and the memories of the hundreds of doctors he had consumed.

Once he reached the proper voltage he thrust the metal plates down on her chest for a moment, causing her body to twitch from the jolt. "COME ON, WAKE UP DAMN IT!" He shouted, still not seeing a heart beat. He tried this a few more times, with just as little success before finally giving up.

Dana, was dead and it was all his fault. He shouldn't have been so careless. He shouldn't have let her fight that monster. He should have intervened sooner. It was all his fault that his sister was dead.

Rage began boiling inside him. No it wasn't his fault. It was that monster! It was the one who killed her, not him! It was the one that kept attacking her even though she was trying to be friendly to it! She hadn't even tried to harm it and yet it still murdered her without a second thought!

No, it was that god damned goat creature! It lead them into a false sense of security! It lied to them by saying monsters were harmless to humans! It had left them alone knowing full well they would eventually be attacked again!

No, it was the flower. No, it was the frog! No, it was the rock! No, it was **_all of them!_**

Standing up he morphed into his armored form and morphed his arms into claws. Glowing orange and red splotches appearing all over his body. Looking, he saw the ghost that killed his sister still floating there. It had the utter gall to just float there looking at him after it just killed Dana! He would tear it to pieces and then move on to the rest of the monsters!

It seemed like it was saying something, like it was trying to apologize? Tears streamed from it's eyes towards Alex. He barely even noticed as it's attacks hit him, and completely ignored it's words. It was only making unintelligible noise to him.

Releasing a horrid inhuman screech he electrified his claws, making sure to add every ounce of voltage he could. Bright electrical sparks jumped erratically between his bladed fingers. He knew he couldn't touch it, having tried moving it earlier, but maybe electricity could hurt it! He pounced, swiping his claws in a lethal arc, intending to slaughter the creature. He felt no resistance as his claws flew through the monster, but he heard a harsh shock and a satisfying gasp of pain and surprise as the electricity did it's job. Out of nowhere the creature burst into a cloud of dust, confusing and disorienting Alex for a moment.

Before he could fully regain his balance after the ghost's sudden disappearance, the now dim red soul still floating above Dana's body flashed brightly, immediately catching his attention. Suddenly the world seemed to shift around him.

(Save Loaded)

He was now someplace different. He recognized it as one of the places he and Dana had passed making their way through the tunnel. His memories of the past few minutes had become fragmented and hazy. He remembered that Dana had been killed by a monster. A ghost or... He remembered trying to save her and failing. He remembered all consuming rage, then... a cloud of dust. Then Dana's soul flashed and something happened. He didn't know what though. It was similar to how his memories had been blocked after waking up in the flower bed but some how different. It was like they had been completely torn out or erased instead of simply being blocked.

Looking down at him self he saw he was still in his base form. That didn't seem right for some reason but he didn't know why. Whatever the case, he was pretty sure he remembered most of what happened, or at least the important parts.

"Ugh. What happened?" a voice asked, pulling him out of his thoughts. Looking up he saw Dana standing there in front of him, completely unharmed. Relief and joy flooded through him. "Dana!" He exclaimed, rushing over to her he picked her up in a tight embrace, while being careful not to hurt her. Tears would have been running down his face if he were human and could cry. He remembered that she had died and the crushing grief that followed, even if he didn't remember how exactly she died.

"I... don't remember much... I thought you died! Something... about a monster, I-I think. I... I just... I'm glad you're alive!" Alex stumbled, trying to find his words, still hugging his sister.

"Are you going to be okay Alex? I've never seen you like this before." Dana asked him, legitimately concerned for his well being at this point.

"Me?" Alex asked, finally setting her back on the ground. "What about you? Dana, I don't know if you realize the significance of this, but you fucking _died._ How are you alive? Are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?"

"No, no. I'm fine, I promise. But, uh... now, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I think I kind of... uh... reset time, some how?" She stated uncertainly.

Alex gave her a confused look. "What do you mean by, 'reset time'? That doesn't make any sense."

"I mean, I think I did something after I died and it reset time back to when I touched this star thing." She told him, motioning to the one behind her.

"Alright." Alex sighed, crossing his arms. "Tell me everything you can remember before and after you died. It may help me understand what happened."

"Well, I remember my fight with the ghost and trying to cheer him up, but I kept getting hit by his tears. Then I ran out of energy and collapsed. Everything went dark and I heard a distant screaming, from you I think." Dana recounted, trying to be as detailed as she could. "After that I remember feeling like something horrible was happening. I knew I was dead, but I didn't want to die. I just felt so... determined? Yeah, determined to live. Then I remembered this star thing." She motioned to the star behind her, which Alex still couldn't see.

"After I remembered it, I did something. I 'Reset' time, some how. I know i did. It's hard to explain how I know, but it's like a gut feeling but stronger? I also know it had something to do with these stars." She told him, trying to explain as best she could.

"That's really all I know. I guess these stars are good things after all, huh?" She smiled at him.

"Yeah, I guess." Alex nodded in agreement. If these stars saved Dana's life like she said, they were definitely a good thing in his mind. He just wished he could actually see them like she did, even if he couldn't interact with them like she could. "You said you did something. Can you remember what or how? Do you think you can do it again if you wanted to?" He asked curiously. Resetting time, if she could remember how to do that, it could be extremely helpful in getting them out of there. Hell, even if it couldn't help them get out, it was still a good tool they could use if Dana ever got hurt or killed again.

"I can't really explain how or what I did exactly. I think I remember how to do it though, and I do feel like I can do it again if you want me to." Dana shrugged.

"You said time reset to the last time you touched this thing, right?" Alex motioned to where Dana said the star was. "Try touching it again so I can remember all of this if it works, then yes please try resetting again if you can."

"Alright I guess." Dana shrugged. Turning she reached out touched the star once again. The idea that she could reset time whenever she wanted filled her with determination. HP fully restored. Progress saved.

"Ready, Alex? I'm going to try resetting again." Dana warned him.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Alex shrugged.

Closing her eyes Dana concentrated, completely determined to succeed. Then the world shifted around them.

(Save Loaded)

Shaking his head to clear it, Alex looked into his Web of Intrigue. It was as if something had tried to erase his memories of the past few seconds but only succeeded in erasing chunks of it. "I think it worked." He stated. "I can just barely remember what happened after you touched that thing again."

"Really? That's so cool! I can actually reset time!" Dana exclaimed excitedly. "I can't believe it, this is awesome! I can use fricking magic!" She smiled gleefully.

"Hmmm." Alex grumbled. "Don't get too ahead of yourself Dana. You're still human and can still get hurt or killed, even if you can control time. Besides, neither of us have any idea of the extent of your abilities, or what exactly you can do with them besides resetting time. We still need to be careful with magic for now. Just don't let it go to your head." Alex told her, crossing his arms.

"I know, I know. I'm not a super hero, I get it." Dana rolled her eyes dismissively. _'At least not yet, I'm not. Once I learn if I have any other abilities, and how to reset time without relying on these stars though...'_ She thought to herself. She knew Alex would be furious with her if she said that though, so she kept the thought to her self. "Well, I guess we should keep moving. This is so strange, but so fricking cool. I think that ghost is just up ahead. I can't wait to try again. I'm sure I can do it this time!" She stated confidently.

"HA! Like I'm just going to let you run off to your death again? There is no way in hell I'm just going to _let_ you fight that thing. What if it remembers what happened, even in pieces like me? It might realize you can alter time and do something to prevent that after killing you again. Or it might just keep attacking you instead of stopping like last time and end up destroying your soul before you have the chance to do anything. No. Just no. I'll take care of all the monsters from here on out. They obviously aren't as 'harmless' as the goat lady claimed." Alex told her with a stubborn expression on his face.

"What?" Dana asked, only a little surprised by her brother's words. He was as paranoid as ever. "Oh come on Alex. You're just being paranoid. So what if it does remember? It would probably just be confused and disoriented, at most. I just didn't know what I was doing before, now I do. Just trust me. Besides, I highly doubt it could stop me from resetting again if I had to."

"Not happening." Alex stated simply.

"I won't die, and even if I did I _can_ reset again! I know what I'm doing this time, and I was so close last time, I know it! Just give me a chance, let me try again!" Dana demanded starting to get upset.

"I can just tie you up and put you in a corner while I deal with the ghost, if you keep this up. Or put you in another spike shell where you would be safe." Alex warned her.

"Seriously! What will it take for you to just trust me for once! I know I'm just another stupid frail human in your eyes, but I can prove you wrong! These powers make me almost as strong as you, if not stronger! I know I can do this, if you'll just let me!" Dana nearly shouted at him.

Alex remained silent. This apparently meant a lot to her for some reason. Maybe she was trying to prove something to him, or maybe to herself? Or it could just be her own stubborn pride. He didn't know, and honestly didn't care what the reason was. He just didn't want to lose his sister again... And yet, he didn't want to upset her either.

He couldn't just let her fight this thing on her own, he knew she would just die again, and he couldn't allow that. Yet, by denying her, he ran a very strong risk of alienating her, he could tell she was already upset. He didn't know what to do. She said her powers made her stronger or at least nearly as strong as him. He disagreed. Sure she could control time while he couldn't, but he was far harder to hurt let alone kill then she was. He could take on an entire army by himself and win, where as he highly doubted that she could.

The only thing he could think of that could potentially make her that strong was if he infected her with his strain of the Blacklight virus, but he refused to do that even if she dying in his arms and that was the only way to save her. But, it was also the only way he could think of that would make her strong enough to let her fight that ghost again.

Or maybe not. Maybe there was a way to work this out without having to infect her, he realized. He had no idea if it would work, or how effective it would be if it did work, but it was the only thing he could think of at this point.

"I have an idea, but I don't know how well it will work." Alex finally told her, after thinking it over for a moment.

"Does this mean you're going to let me try?" Dana asked him hopefully.

"Sort of." He shrugged. Walking over to her he placed one of his hands on her shoulder. "Just try to hold still." He told her. Tendrils of biomass swirled out of his hand and engulfed Dana. This lasted for a few moments before the tendrils finally stopped and tightened into place. Disconnecting the biomass he used, he stepped back and looked at his work. Dana was now covered in black armor similar in appearance to Alex's when he was in his armored form, just without any spikes or sharp points. The only part of her that wasn't covered in the viral armor was her head, which he intentionally left exposed so she could still hear, see, and breath.

"This armor should be strong enough to tank a .50 caliber bullet at point blank range and still keep you alive, though you might still get a bruise or two. You shouldn't even feel anything less then that. It might take a while to get used to though." He explained to her. "I even gave you a knife just in case we ever get separated and you need to defend your self, and talking doesn't work." He pointed to the handle, which was sticking out of a small specially made sheath embedded in the armor near her hip.

Dana looked down and examined herself. A translucent black box appeared in front of her. White text appeared on it soon after. Armor: Viral Armor (heals you in battle), Weapon: Viral Dagger, Defense: 9,999 Attack: 900. It disappeared as soon as she stopped reading it. _'Whoa. That was weird. It's probably magic, I should tell Alex about this. Eh, I'll do it later.'_ She thought. It didn't seem that important.

Shrugging internally she reached down to the knife at her waist and pulled it out of it's sheath. It's blade was all black save for the cutting edge of the blade which was metallic grey like Alex's blades, the spine was black like the rest of it. The handle was simple but felt good in her hand. It was really heavy though, possibly due to how thick the blade was, though it could have been how much biomass Alex stuffed into it. She slid it back into it's sheath.

"Thanks Alex! This is really cool. Does it increase my strength or speed? How do I take it off? Do you think it can protect me from magic attacks?" Dana asked, she had a dozen questions but decided to settle on just those three.

"No, it only protects you, it shouldn't make you any faster or stronger. Warn me immediately if you think it's starting to. You don't want to get infected, trust me." Alex told her. He had triple checked when making the armor that every last cell of biomass was completely inert and incapable of spreading the virus, but it was better to be safe. "You can't take it off either, unfortunately, only I can. Just tell me if and when you want me to. And, yeah, I think it should protect you from magic. I wouldn't be agreeing to let you fight the ghost again otherwise."

"Oh." Dana said, looking down at the armor in thought. "Then, can you at least get rid of the lower half, or make it detachable? I mean, it weighs my legs down a lot, and I feel like it makes me look too intimidating, like you."

"Dana, it's there to protect you. I don't care how it makes you look." Alex sighed in irritation. "But fine, as long as your torso is covered I guess." Putting his hand on her shoulder, he pulled some of the biomass back into himself, rearranging the sheath and knife so they sat on her side instead of her hip. When he was finished only her torso, hands, and neck were covered by the armor. At least her vital organs were protected.

"Okay, now _I_ have a ghost to try cheering up!" Dana stated.

They continued forward once more. This time Dana stepped up first. She examined the ghost as he pretended to sleep. A big translucent black square appeared in front of the ghost. Soon white text appeared on it. Napstablook, DF: 10 AT: 10 This monster doesn't have a very good sense of humor.

Suddenly Dana's soul appeared in front of her and the ghost was now floating straight up. "Oh, I'm REAL funny." The ghost, Napstablook, sighed sarcastically. Tears welled from his eyes onto the floor like before, this time Dana knew better though and moved out of the way before she could be hit. Eventually the attack ended and Dana hadn't gotten hit once.

She did everything the same as she did last time, except this time she didn't try flirting with Napstablook. Instead she just kept trying to cheer him up normally. Dodging out of the way whenever he tried attacking her. This went on for a while before the ghost finally stopped attacking. "I want to show you something." He told her, significantly happier then when the battle started. Tears welled from his eyes again but this time flew upwards towards the top of his head and clumped together. When he was finished a ghostly top hat sat upon his head. "I call it, Dapperblook. What do you think?" He asked her.

"It looks great on you, Napstablook." Dana smiled, giving it a thumbs up in approval.

"Oh gee." Napstablook sighed. Dana's soul disappeared as did Napstablook's hat. "I usually come to the ruins because there is nobody around, but today I met some body nice... Oh, I'm rambling again. I'll get out of your way." He stated before disappearing from sight. Seven gold coins lay on the ground below where Napstablook had been floating.

Eyes wide in confusion and amazement, Dana walked over and picked them up. They were about the size of a quarter. On the front was the picture of a monster that looked a lot like Toriel but this one had a beard and crown. On the back was the same strange symbol as on Toriel's robe. She wondered what it was or what it meant. Whatever it was, she had seven gold coins in her hand! She had never even seen this much gold before, let alone touched it!

Looking back at Alex she gloated, "I told you I could do it. Also, were fricking rich! Napstablook left a bunch of gold behind!"

Alex walked over and took one of the coins from Dana. After looking at it for a moment, he bent it slightly to determine if it was real gold. It was, much to his surprise. Bending it back into shape he stated, "Actually, there isn't really all that much here. Were not rich, but it should help a bit with paying off your student loans. Anyways, good job. I actually had my doubts whether you could do it or not." Alex stated, handing her back the coin. Reaching into his pocket he also pulled out the monster candy from earlier and held it out for her. "Here, I saw you get hit a few times. Take this as my apology for doubting you."

Dana shoved the coins into her pocket and took the candy. "It's alright. I know you only want to keep me safe." She told him, throwing the candy into her mouth. It had a distinct non-liquorice flavor, but it tasted good all the same. Immediately she felt way better after eating it. It had healed her like Toriel and the star things did.

"That candy actually healed me." Dana stated, surprised by this.

"Really? We can always go back and get the rest of it." Alex suggested.

Dana shook her head. "Nah, it just said to take one. Besides, I doubt that candy is the only food item that heals down here."

They walked forward and saw two more doors. Beside one was a sign that read, "Spider bake sale."

They entered the room with the sign and saw two webs. Walking over to the smaller one Dana leaned down and looked at it. A small spider crawled down on to it and seemed to look up at her. "Would you like to purchase a spider doughnut? It's only seven G. All proceeds go to real spiders." It asked her.

Dana's eye's widened in surprise. A talking spider, that was one thing she never expected to find down here. Her heart dropped as soon as she realized what the price was. G had to stand for gold. That was all the coins Napstablook had given them. However, if a doughnut cost seven gold, then gold must be really common down here. She rationalized. If that was the case, they would get more eventually. Shrugging she decided to risk it.

"Alright." She said taking the coins out of her pocket. "I'll take one. Where should I put the coins?"

"Just set them in my web and we will bring down your doughnut." It told her.

She set the gold coins into the web, trying to be careful not to break it. She was surprised it was strong enough to hold the coins at all. When she handed over all seven coins, some spiders crawled down the wall carrying a doughnut. "Thank you very much." she told them before walking back to Alex. "Here, can you hold onto this for me? I don't want to risk crushing it by putting it in my pockets." She held the doughnut out to her brother.

Alex rolled his eyes but took the doughnut and put it under his jacket to hide it from sight before pulling it into his biomass, though he didn't consume it.

Continuing on they passed through a large room with another sign telling them about the spider bake sale. They were attacked a few times by various different monsters as they pressed forwards. Dana dealt with them all easily, and managed to avoid the majority of their attacks. Some plant creatures even healed her during their encounters. They all dropped various amounts of gold after their fights.

As they reached the end of the room a frog creature hopped up to them and croaked. "Ribbit, ribbit. You two are quite merciful for humans. Since you probably don't know this yet, a monster wears a yellow name when you can spare them. To see a monster's name, just focus on them for a moment. Ribbit, ribbit."

 _'I guess that's how Dana learned the ghost's name.'_ Alex thought to himself. "Thanks, that should help us a lot." He told the creature. Wanting to test this, he focused on the creature for a moment. A translucent black square appeared above the frog. White text began writing it's self on the square. Froggit, Attack 4 Defense 5, Life is difficult for this enemy. Alex found it odd that the text specifically chose the word enemy to describe the creature. Perhaps it partially uses his own perception of the monster to create the text?

Finally they came across their next puzzle. It was a room with a locked door and six different cracks in the ground. There only clue was a sign on the wall telling them there was only one switch. "Looks like were going to have to see what's underneath these holes." Dana stated. Choosing one at random she walked over to it and stepped on the cracks, Alex followed suit going to a different crack. The floor gave out beneath her and she landed in a small room with Napstablook.

"I fell down a hole... Now I can't get up... Go on without me..." He moaned miserably. "Wait, ghosts can fly can't they? Oh well..." With that he disappeared again, leaving Dana behind, confused and wondering what just happened.

Looking around, she couldn't find any hidden switch. Seeing a set of stairs out, she decided to climb back up and try another room. Back at the top, she saw Alex waiting for her near the door which was now open.

"You found the switch?" She asked as she walked up to him.

"Yeah. It was in the second room I checked. All the first one had was this thing." He held out a faded ribbon.

"It's so cute!" Dana exclaimed taking the ribbon from him, much to his surprise.

"What the hell? You like ribbons?" Alex inquired. He honestly didn't expect that.

"Well, not usually, no." Dana said as she fastened it to her hair. "But then, usually I'm a grown woman and ribbons look ridiculous on me. Right now though, I think it will make me look adorable, even with this armor."

Alex shook his head. If she wanted to wear some dusty old ribbon, he had no real reason to say no. He was the one who showed it to her in the first place after all. _'As long as she's happy, I guess.'_ He thought.

The next puzzle was easy enough, the rooms were simply altered, mirrored and flipped versions of the beginning and they had to flip one of three different colored switches hidden in them. Signs indicated which one they needed to flip for each variation of the room. A few monsters attacked them while they went through it, but Dana handled them easily enough while Alex hit the switches. The entire thing took only about a minute or two.

Finally they reached the end. Coming to a crossroad, they decided to continue going straight. Another froggit hopped in front of them as they reached the door at the end of the hall. "Ribbit, ribbit. Just between you and me, I saw Toriel come out of here just a little while ago. She was carrying some groceries. I didn't ask what they were for... We're all too intimidated to talk to her. Ribbit." It croaked at them.

"Whoa... What a great view!" Dana chimed as they walked through the door. They stood on a balcony overlooking a massive city, a stone set of stairs lead off the side and down towards the city. All the buildings appeared to be made of stone as well. "It looks like it would be an amazing place to live if it weren't so... dark." She stated, leaning on the stone railing near the edge of the balcony.

The city looked completely abandoned, neither Dana or Alex could see a single light coming from it. Switching to his thermal vision, Alex saw a few creatures roaming around in what streets were visible, but not much else. He switched back to his normal vision. "The monsters must have built it." Alex observed. "I wonder why they left it like this. It usually takes a lot to make people just abandon an entire city."

"Who knows? Maybe it cost more to keep then it was worth." Dana guessed. "Or maybe the city's main source of jobs and industry collapsed. Since they're underground, I guess it would be mining or something." Whatever the case, she was sad to see such a beautiful city forgotten like this.

"That's possible. Either way, we can't stay here forever. We should get going." Alex stated, turning back towards the door.

"Wait, you don't want to explore it first?" Dana asked, still curious about the city.

"No, I really don't." Alex stated, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "We're trying to get out of here remember? I would rather find the exit as soon as possible then constantly be attacked by monsters while we explore some abandoned city."

Dana sighed disappointedly but didn't argue. Alex had absolutely _no_ sense of adventure, she decided.

They backtracked to the area where the path split off and turned on the path they hadn't been down yet. Walking forward they saw a large tree with a large pile of leafs on the ground around it, though it's branches were completely bare. Taking a few steps forward, they stopped when they heard a familiar voice approaching them.

"Oh dear, that took longer then I thought it would." Toriel said as she walked around the tree, holding her phone up to her ear. Dana's phone rang just a second later. Surprised, Toriel looked up and finally noticed them.

Closing her phone and rushing over to Dana with worry in her eyes, she asked, "How did you get here, my child? Are you hurt?" She looked Dana over for any damage. "Not a scratch... Impressive! But still... I should not have left you and your brother alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try and surprise you like this." She froze, realizing what she just said. "Err... I suppose I can not hide it any longer. Come, small one! You as well human." She told them, turning and walking back towards what looked to be a small house behind the tree before either of them could respond.

"I wonder what this surprise could be?" Dana muttered to her self.

"She seemed to be in a hurry, whatever it was." Alex stated, equally as curious. "Only one way to find out, I guess."

"Hey, it's another reset star thing." Dana noticed as they neared the door to the house. "Give me a second, Alex." She told him running over to the star. Reaching out, she touched it. Seeing such a cute, tidy house in the ruins filled her with determination. HP fully restored. Progress saved.

 **Ending notes: I don't usually do these, but I want to talk about a couple things in the chapter that I felt shouldn't go in my normal notes at the top of the page. First, since I know some people won't like it, I know you can only hurt ghosts like Napstablook in Undertale with magical attacks. Here's my thought process on this, magic is just some form of energy that monsters and some humans can control. Electricity is similar in that it is energy. As such, ghosts should be able to be hurt by electricity as well. Heck, even Paranormal investigators in real life (whether ghosts are real or not) use Electromagnetic field detectors and Electronic Voice Phenomenon devices to detect and communicate with ghosts. Besides, this is a fanfiction and as such does not follow the same rules as Undertale.**

 **Second, I know the armor and weapon Alex gave Dana is over powered and would make everything way too easy in game, but Alex himself is over powered and _already_ makes everything way too easy. Plus he wouldn't want his little sister getting hurt or killed again, so yeah, he would make her armor as strong as he possibly could. Besides, this is the only way I could think of for him to keep her as safe as possible without carrying her around on his back in a bulletproof shell of biomass the entire story, which I'm sure he would do if he had to. But, if it makes you feel any better, once the armor around her legs was removed, her Defense dropped from 9,999 to 900, like her attack. She's still over powered just not as over powered.  
**

 **I know not all of you care, I just felt I had to address these things for the few that might care. Sorry about that. I'll see you guys in the next chapter!**


	5. Chapter 5: Leaving The Ruins

**My notes: Whew, it's a relief to finally get this chapter done. I had it sitting half written on my computer for awhile. It is a bit frustrating that I can't have Alex actually fight and go ballistic with his powers like he does in the game. I guess that's part of the fun of writing it though, just a little added challenge. I am glad you guys seem to be enjoying the story so far, and I hope I can continue to keep up or maybe even surpass it's current level of quality. I love hearing feedback from you guys, so please leave a review telling me what you think. Constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged, I can't improve without knowing what I need to work on after all.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Wicked.A: I've been thinking about how their first encounter with Sans will go, and honestly I'm not sure yet. I know for a fact he will not be judging Alex immediately, however. No Sans can not kill Alex with one hit, even with how much LV Alex has. Alex sees pretty much everyone in the underground as a threat, but as for how much of a threat he'll see Sans as kinda depends on how I decide to write their first encounter. So, I'm not entirely sure just yet.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own either Prototype or Undertale**

As soon as Alex and Dana entered the house, there senses were bombarded by the sweet aroma of home cooking. Dana's mouth started watering at the scent. Whatever it was, it smelled absolutely delicious.

"Do you smell that?" Toriel asked as they walked in. "Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie! I thought we might celebrate your arrival." She smiled warmly at them. "I want you to have a nice time living here. So, I will hold off on snail pie for tonight."

"Thank you so much, Toriel! You really didn't have to make us anything, you've helped us so much already." Dana said gratefully, smiling happily. _'Was she serious about the snail pie thing?'_ She wondered silently to herself.

"Yeah, thanks." Alex stated simply. His expression was completely unreadable, though his eyes never left Toriel. Dana wondered why, but said nothing for the moment.

"It is my pleasure! It's not everyday that I have guests to cook for, after all." Toriel chuckled in amusement. "Here, I have yet another surprise for you. Please follow me." She told them, turning to walk down the hallway.

Stopping in front of the first door, she turned to Dana and said, "This is it... A room of your own, my child. I hope you like it!" She messed up Dana's hair affectionately.

Turning to Alex she said, "I'm sorry, human. This is the only room I have ready and the bed is only big enough for your sister. As I said before, I wasn't expecting to have company so soon." She seemed slightly embarrassed by the situation. "I believe I have a few spare blankets and pillows somewhere, but I'm afraid you may have to sleep on the floor until I can find another bed for you."

"It's fine, don't bother. Because of my abilities, I don't need sleep like most humans." Alex explained indifferently. "Besides, we are going to be leaving soon enough, so it shouldn't matter anyway." His face was still unreadable, but Dana knew something was bothering him.

"Very well. Thank you for being so understanding, human." Toriel stated sounding relieved, though she looked slightly uncomfortable or maybe nervous. Suddenly she began sniffing the air. "Is something burning...?" She asked herself. "Um, make yourself at home!" She told them both before rushing away, leaving them alone in the hallway.

"I hope the pie isn't burned. It smelled so good!" Dana commented.

"Yeah..." Alex stated absentmindedly, barely registering what she said.

"Alex? What's wrong? You've been acting strange ever since we came in. What's going on?" She demanded, wanting answers.

"I don't trust her. Have a nice time 'living' here? I don't like the way she said that." He sighed. "Whatever, I'm probably reading too much into it. Anyways, let's take a look at this room."

"At least you finally admit it for once." Dana teased jokingly. Opening the door, she stepped inside, followed closely by Alex.

The room was small but clean, if a bit dusty. It was light by a single lamp in the corner. A large rug covered most of the smooth wooden floor. Some toys lay between the wall and a single small bed, that was just big enough for Dana. At the foot of the bed was a box of toys, none of which interested Dana in the slightest. At the very back stood a large wardrobe which, after looking inside, was completely empty. Next to it was a small bookshelf with an empty photo frame sitting on top that was completely covered in dust. Finally, next to the book shelf sat a small chest full of nothing but kids' shoes in many different sizes.

"It's almost as big as my apartment!" Dana said in amazement.

"Cleaner too." Alex joked. "It was a wreck, last time I visited."

Dana rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well you try to find time to clean while having to balance work and college. I rarely have enough time to sleep!" She sighed irritatedly. She yawned, realizing how tired she was at the mere thought of sleep. "Speaking of which. After all that's happened today, I'm absolutely exhausted. I think I'm gonna take a nap." She said as she walked over to the bed.

"Okay Dana. I'll be right outside. Just shout if you need me." Alex told her, walking over and turning off the lamp in the corner of the room. With that he left the room, closing the door behind him. He stood leaning against the wall next to the door.

After a few minutes had gone by, Toriel came walking up holding two plates with a slice of pie on each. "The pie is ready!" Toriel chimed happily, holding one of the plates out for Alex. "Why are you standing out here by yourself, if you don't mind me asking?" She inquired curiously.

"My sister's taking a nap, and I don't want to bother her." Alex stated, taking the plate .

"Oh! Thank you for telling me. I will just set down her slice in her room for her to find when she wakes up. Do not worry, I will be careful not to wake her." Toriel said, quietly opening the door and walking into the room. After a moment she walked back out without the plate before quietly closing the door and walking away.

Alex picked up the butterscotch pie off the plate and looked at it for a moment. Shrugging he took a bite. It tasted pretty good. He ate the rest and continued waiting. After awhile, the door finally opened and Dana walked out, carrying an empty plate and devouring what was left of her slice of pie.

"Toriel's a really good cook, this pie is great!" She exclaimed, closing the door behind her.

"That's nice and all, but now we need to get moving. Let's go find her and see if she knows the way out of here." Alex stated looking at Dana.

Dana sighed and looked down at her plate. "I guess you're right." she muttered.

They walked back through the hallway, and entered the living room. Toriel sat reading in a large red chair near a brick and stone fireplace. A fire was going inside the fireplace, though it lacked any wood or gas pipes for fuel, indicating it must be magic based. Next to the fireplace was a large bookshelf. On the other side of the room was an average wooden dining table with four chairs.

"Excuse me, Toriel, but what should we do with our plates?" Dana asked as they entered the room, trying to be polite.

"Up already I see. Just set them on the dining table for now, my child. We can take care of them later." Toriel smiled.

Alex and Dana set their plates down and walked over to Toriel.

"Um, I want you two to know how glad I am to have someone here." She stated, setting her book down and looking at the siblings. "There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education..."

Alex cut her off. "We never agreed to live down here with you. We just need to find the exit, do you know where it is, or not?" He demanded.

Toriel's expression grew slightly panicked. Looking around for a moment she grabbed the book she was reading and showed it to them. Attempting to dodge the question she asked, "W-would you two like to hear about the book I'm reading? It's -"

"Don't change the subject! Give us a straight answer, do you know the way out or not?" Alex growled, his tendrils thrashing internally.

"Alex!" Dana hissed, elbowing him in the side.

Toriel set her book down and stood up. "...I have to do something." She said anxiously. "Both of you stay here." She quickly rushed out of the living room towards the hallway.

"Wait, were not done here!" Alex half shouted, but she was already gone. "Damn it!"

"Good job, you scared her away." Dana said sarcastically, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Grrr, we really need to work on your people skills. For now let's just go after her, and this time let _me_ try talking to her." She started towards the hallway with Alex following close behind.

"Where do you think she might have gone?" Dana asked, not sure where they should look.

Alex thought for a moment before noticing the door at the bottom of the stairs leading to the basement was open. "Down there." He pointed before taking the lead down the steps.

He was somewhat surprised to find a long passage way at the bottom of the stairs instead of the basement he had been expecting, Dana appeared equally astonished. They continued on until the path made a sharp turn to the left and a massive door came into view, in front of which stood Toriel facing the door.

Apparently hearing their foot steps as they approached, keeping her back to them she said, "You wish to know how to return 'home' do you not? This is the end of the ruins. A one way exit to the rest of the underground." she explained. "I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again." Fire engulfed her claws.

Alex growled and stomped a foot against the hard stone floor, causing a minor tremor and the stone to crack under the force, and massive spikes of biomass quickly erupted from the ground between Toriel and the door. "Fuck that and fuck you! Me and my sister are getting the hell out of here, and I won't let you get in our way! I would rather not have to tear you apart in front of her, but I will if I have to. If you're smart you'll step aside right fucking now and let us go on our god damn way, otherwise I'll show you what a _real_ fucking monster looks like."

Dana wanted to object, but she couldn't think of any way to solve this situation without using force. Still there had to be something she could do! There had to be a way to do this without killing Toriel, she just knew it! She had to think fast.

Toriel turned to face Alex, her face completely calm and expressionless, though Alex could smell her fear and uncertainty, though oddly underneath that he could smell a faint hint of sadness and grief. "Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive fool... If you leave the ruins... No matter how powerful you think you are... They... Asgore... Will kill both you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?" She stated, turning back to face the spikes and the door. "This is your only warning, do not try to stop me. Remove your barricade and go back upstairs with your sister, this wont take but a moment I assure you."

Alex sneered. "I've destroyed entire god damn armies by my self, I've killed things that put your worst fucking nightmares to shame, I survived being reduced to a god damn puddle by a nuclear bomb meant to destroy a city, I even destroyed the one creature in the entire god damn world that scientists thought _might_ be able kill me. I have faced way worse then _anything_ down here. If you think I'll just let myself or my sister be killed, you are dead wrong." he growled.

"Normally I would have ripped you limb from limb by now, but since my sister would have probably bled to death if you hadn't healed her, I'm giving you one chance. Get. Out. Of. Our. Way." Tendrils engulfed Alex as he morphed into his armored form. Both of his arms had become slightly smaller versions of his usual massive blade. Despite their smaller size they were still both still strong and sharp enough to cut through armored tanks with ease.

Toriel turned to face him again, her claws blazing with fire. "You want to leave so badly? Hmph. There is only one solution to this. Prove your self... Prove to me your claims are true, that you actually are as strong as you say. Prove to me you are strong enough to ensure the survival of both you and your sister. Fight me."

A sad look appeared in Toriel's eyes, Alex didn't notice it but Dana did and that gave her an idea.

Alex and Dana's souls appeared in front of their chests and Alex dropped into a running stance, blades at the ready, preparing to charge at Toriel. "Turn around and cover your ears. I don't want you to have to see or hear any of this. I'll tell you when it's over." He ordered Dana.

"Wait!" Dana yelled, grabbing his upper arm where there weren't any spikes or sharp edges.

He turned his head and looked at his sister. "Let go of me, Dana. Trying to talk and make friends won't get us anywhere in this situation. This time I'm handling it _my_ way, and I don't want to have to tie you up or put you in a cage to keep you from interfering."

"Just listen to me for a second. You might not have to hurt Toriel at all." Dana said impatiently. "I know this seems like a bad situation, but you have to trust me, I have a plan. At least let me try my idea first before you do anything."

"And if it doesn't work? What then?" Alex asked darkly.

"I-if it doesn't work..." Dana looked over at Toriel uncertainly. Sighing she looked back at Alex and said, "If it doesn't work I'll get to safety and let you handle it your way. In fact if there are any monsters that attack us in the future that I can't handle on my own, I'll let you deal with them how ever you want. If it comes to that though, please, if you can in any way avoid it, try not to kill her. She seems like a legitimately good person, she just cares too much about other people."

Alex stayed silent for a moment, thinking to himself. Eventually he shifted his stance to a normal standing position, morphing his arms back to their base armored form and letting them fall to his sides. "Fine. Just don't do anything reckless. I can't promise anything, but I'll at least _try_ not to kill her if I have to step in. I can think of a few ways to disable her long enough for us to leave that should be pretty safe."

Dana hugged him, smiling happily. "Thank you." She turned and approached Toriel who raised an eyebrow curiously.

"Oh? From the threats your brother was making, I'm surprised he isn't attacking me yet. My child, I saw you speaking with him. Have you managed to make him see reason or do you also wish to leave and end up getting yourself killed?" Toriel inquired.

Dana chuckled. "I'm pretty sure he still wants to rip your spine out through your throat, but I convinced him to let me try to work this out. Look you seem really nice but we can't just stay with you, we have to go home."

"You are just like the others. There is nothing that can be 'worked out', but if you wish to fight me in your brother's place then very well. Do not expect me to go easy on you because you are a child." Toriel stated seriously. She raised a claw and dozens of fireballs materialized in rows between her and Dana. They moved back and forth between each other in a wave like fashion as they flew towards Dana, leaving a constantly shifting empty space in the center of where the waves crossed each other.

Dana ducked beneath the first few fireballs and tried to stand back up in the space between the fireballs, constantly moving as the shape and location of the space changed to avoid getting hit. It worked well until it moved in a way she hadn't predicted and one of the fireballs hit her in the side. There was little to no drain on her energy due to the armor Alex gave her, but the fireball left a scorch mark on the surface of the armor and she could feel the heat that had been coming off of it on the unarmored parts of her body. The scorch mark almost immediately began to flake of revealing that any damage the fire did to the armor was absolutely negligible.

Her eyes widened in surprise, but she forced herself to focus and follow along as the safe zone in the fire continued to change. Eventually the fireballs disappeared giving Dana a chance to catch her breath. "What the heck? That was actual fire! I thought you said magic shouldn't be able to physically harm a person to an extreme degree!" Dana exclaimed incredulously.

Toriel's blank expression did not change as she sent a wall of fire across the ground towards Dana forcing her to dodge. "And I did not lie to you. Magic normally can not harm a person physically beyond possibly causing a bruise or a small cut, but that only applies to magic it's self which most monsters use as attacks. Fire can still burn you, I had thought that was quite obvious." She said coldly.

"I am using magic to create and manipulate fire, I'm not actually using magic to attack you at all. Only boss monsters such as my self and the very few monsters that live in volcanic regions can create or control fire well enough to use it in combat. As such, I had believed I would be able to wait to explain this until I began teaching you both about magic in greater detail, once you had settled in to life here. If you're wondering, then to my knowledge using fire is the only way magic can be used to physically harm a person, that flower is still a mystery to me." She explained.

Dana could feel the sweat dripping down her face from both the heat and trying to dodge Toriel's attacks. "Awesome." She groaned sarcastically to herself under her breath, cursing mentally. She looked back and saw Alex's armored form crouched and ready to pounce at Toriel from across the room. "Don't you dare! I can still do this, just give me time." Alex stayed where he was for a moment before reluctantly standing up straight and crossing his arms, his gaze never leaving Toriel. Tendrils thrashed around him furiously.

"Toriel, you are the one who told us that violence isn't necessary when you found us. I know you don't really want to hurt me or my brother. This is ridiculous, we are not going to fight you." Dana stated defiantly.

Toriel said nothing as she waved her claws through the air. Rows of large fireballs appeared both in front of and behind Dana before flying at her. She jumped to the side narrowly avoiding being hit by the flames. She landed on her back, but thankfully the armor absorbed most of the shock.

Standing up she said, "Go ahead, keep attacking me. No matter what you do, I am not going to fight back. I can tell how much you hate doing this, even if you try to hide it."

Toriel didn't seem to hear Dana, that or she was simply very good at ignoring her. She waited a moment as if to see if Dana was going to do anything. When Dana just stood there looking at her, Toriel waved a hand through the air and sent another volley of fireballs at her.

Dana dodged again, though one fireball managed to hit her directly in the stomach. The armor prevented any sort of injury, but the attack still caused her heart to pound wildly in her chest. It was almost incredible how intimidating fire could be when it was being used as a weapon against you, she decided.

The fight continued on like this for some time, with Toriel silently attacking Dana and Dana dodging said attacks and completely refusing to fight back. Eventually Toriel began to look confused and finally asked, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, that's the point! I don't want to fight you, I _won't_ fight you." Dana shouted back.

Toriel raised a hand and a massive wave of fire shot towards her. Dana's eyes grew wide and she felt the color drain from her face, there was no way she was going to be able to dodge that one. Dozens of spikes exploded from the ground in front of the wave. She heard Alex hiss in pain from behind her as the fire collided with the spikes.

The flames were forced scatter and dissipate on the sharp pillars of biomass long before they managed to reach Dana. When it was over the spikes retracted back into the ground. Dana looked back at Alex, who was busy pulling his fists out of the ground. "Thanks, Alex." She mumbled at him, she was still a little shaken up by that attack. He nodded in response, apparently having heard her.

She turned to face Toriel again. The boss monster appeared completely unfazed by Alex's intervention. Had she been expecting it? That wouldn't have surprised Dana in the least, honestly. She was seriously hoping Toriel would reach her tipping point and just give up soon. Her entire plan revolved around the fact that Toriel didn't seem to want to hurt them and the gut feeling she had that if she kept pushing her like this Toriel would eventually crumble. If that didn't happen soon though, Dana with no choice but to let Alex deal with her.

"Fight or run away." Toriel ordered her, creating another set of fire balls on either side of Dana.

"Not happening." Dana stated. The fireballs flew towards her and she ducked underneath them.

"What are you proving this way?" Toriel demanded, frustration creeping into her voice.

Dana just shook her head, fists clenched in determination. She stepped to the side as Toriel raised a claw and launched a single fireball straight at her.

"Fight me or leave!" Toriel commanded, shooting another fire ball at Dana, though her aim was off to the side slightly and she missed without Dana having to move at all.

"No." Dana growled defiantly.

"Stop it!" Toriel shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. She swung her arm and sent another wall of flame at Dana, though it dissipated into the air before it got any where near her.

Dana stood there silently, staring at Toriel.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Toriel cried. A huge row of fireballs appeared in front of her and flew towards Dana only to hit the ground in front of her.

"Go away!" Toriel sobbed. Her attacks now sputtering out just a few feet in front of her.

Alex could hardly believe what he was seeing. How the hell was this actually working, he wondered as he morphed back into his base form and walked up to them. He couldn't seem to understand it no matter how hard he tried, it just made absolutely no sense. He shook his head. _'Whatever, I guess. I suppose it doesn't really matter why. The fact is, Dana's plan is working and she is safe. That's all I really need to know.'_ he thought to himself.

Toriel lowered her claws, tears streaming into the fur under her eyes. She was silent for a few moments. Finally she said, "I know you want to go home but... But, please go upstairs now..." She smiled sadly, "I promise I will take good care of you here. I know we do not have much, but... We can have a good life here."

Dana shook her head, "Me and my brother can't stay here, we have to go home."

Toriel's expression grew sad, "Why are you making this so difficult?" Toriel asked. "Please, go upstairs."

"You know we can't do that, so please just let us leave." Dana told her.

Toriel frowned sadly, saying nothing but not moving. Finally she smiled and chuckled remorsefully. "Pathetic, is it not? I can't even save a single child and her older brother."

Dana had no idea how to respond to that, she would have asked for Alex's help, but he was even worse then she was when it came to things like this. As a result, the room was completely silent for a couple of moments.

Finally, Toriel said, "No, I understand. You and your brother would just be unhappy trapped down here. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this. My expectations... My loneliness... My fear... For you, my child... I will put them aside."

Both Alex and Dana's souls vanished. "If you truly wish to leave the ruins... I will not stop you. However, when you leave... Please do not come back. I hope you understand." Toriel stated. Stepping closer to them, she knelt down and hugged Dana. Releasing her she stood back up and turned to face Alex. Before he could react, she threw her arms around him and hugged him as well. Releasing him, she stepped back and looked at them both. Alex stood there frozen in place, utterly confused, and feeling extremely uncomfortable with the event that just took place. Dana, on the other hand, was just relieved her plan had worked and that Toriel wasn't going to have to fight Alex.

"Goodbye, my child, human." Toriel stated before walking past them, back towards the hall. She hesitated and looked back for a moment, but eventually walked away.

Once she disappeared behind the corner, Alex walked up to the spikes blocking the door and placed a hand on them before pulling the biomass back into himself. "Let's go." he told Dana as he pushed the doors open and walked through.

 **End note: Just a quick question. What do you guys think about fire attacks being able to do physical damage like this? I thought it was an interesting idea and that's why I included it, but I can pretty easily just edit it out of the chapter if the majority of you don't like it.**


	6. Chapter 6

**My Note: Sorry this has taken so long. I've had to deal with end of the year school stuff and adjusting to new medication for ADD since summer started. Not much of an excuse but oh well. I am glad to see you guys generally like my interpretation of fire magic though. Anyways, please leave a review telling me what you think of this chapter and anything you think I may be able to improve on. It would really help. Thank you!**

 **Edit: Oh, also, I noticed that whenever I upload a chapter on this website, random words seem to get cut out for no apparent reason. It's been a while so I don't know if it's still happening or if it's been fixed, but I just thought I should let you know.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or Prototype**

Alex and Dana walked down a long passage way as they made their way out of the ruins. Eventually, it opened up into a large room eerily similar to the one in which the first met both Flowey and Toriel. The first thing he noticed upon entering the room was a patch of grass in the center, illuminated by a hole in the ceiling of the cave. In the middle of the grass stood that very same flower creature, smiling up at them smugly in sadistic amusement.

Without even a microsecond of hesitation, Alex morphed into his armored form with his claws out and was about to stab the ground to make another bulletproof shell around Dana before pouncing. However, it appeared Flowey was just as prepared for this encounter as he was. "Ah ah ah." he chided mockingly. Before Alex could do anything his and Dana's souls appeared in front of them and nearly a dozen spinning white pellets formed a ring around Dana's head, just inches from her skull.

"Craaaap..." Dana groaned in a mix of fear and frustration as she did her best not to move.

Seeing this terror bolted through Alex, he froze in place before morphing back to his base form and slowly raising his hands into the air to show he was unarmed and wouldn't attack. "What do you want, you GOD DAMN WEED?!" Alex spat hatefully, unable to keep himself from shouting in rage. He was loud enough that Dana could feel the force of the sound as if she was standing next to a loud speaker at a heavy metal concert, causing her to cringe in pain as it hurt her ears.

"Golly, now is that any way to treat a friend?" Flowey said pretending to look hurt by Alex's words. "Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt either of you. I just want to talk a bit." He chuckled in amusement. Looking at Dana he said, "That was veeeery clever. I bet you feel really great. You didn't kill anybody this time, but what will you do when you meet a relentless killer? You'll die, and you'll die, and you'll die, until you tire of trying. What will you do then, will you kill out of frustration, or perhaps let your older brother kill for you, or will you give up entirely on this world... and let me inherit the power to control it?"

"What do you...?" Dana started but Flowey cut her off.

Looking at Alex he began to laugh hysterically. "You on the other hand, you're not even human are you? As if your soul and abilities weren't a dead give away from the start, now that I examine you, I can't see your name or even what you are, but you have waaay more EXP then even _I_ do! I can't even imagine how much you've killed..." He stated, seemingly impressed. "Well, you certainly aren't a monster either, no monster has a soul as strong as yours or that looks like yours. The only thing I can think of to describe you would be a demon, I mean with that much EXP you _must_ be from Hell right?" Flowey grinned mockingly.

"Fuck you! If I'm a 'demon', how about I drag you to hell right after I tear you to shreds, you bastard!?" Alex hissed furiously.

Ignoring him Flowey continued. "Well, Mr. Demon, I'm even more eager to see what you do then what your sister does. Will you be able to restrain your self, will you kill just to protect your sister, or after seeing her die over and over, will you finally just break and wipe out the entire underground? I mean just seeing her die once seemed to drive you mad. After killing that ghost I'm almost certain you would have kept killing everything had she not reset. I'm almost tempted to kill her now just to see what you would do, but no. This is sooo much more interesting."

With that Flowey disappeared into the ground, and the pellets around Dana's head disappeared, causing her to sigh in relief. Alex lowered his arms, and his tendrils began thrashing around him violently. He was practically shaking from frustration and rage as he stared at the spot where Flowey had been.

"How did he know I could reset time, let alone remember what happened before I did?" Dana thought to her self. "And wait, did he say you killed Napstablook?! What the...? How can you...? Is it even possible to kill a ghost?!"

"I don't remember, but apparently so." Alex shook his head. "I told you we have to be careful with your ability. If he can remember you're resets it only makes sense that others would be able to as well." He growled. "Arg... For now, let's just keep moving."

As he and Dana crossed the room the temperature dropped significantly. Alex pushed open the door leading out of the ruins. Stepping outside they both noticed they were inside an absolutely gigantic cavern. The ground was pure white with snow, and they were surrounded by a dense forest. Everything was illuminated by dozens upon dozens of massive brightly glowing stones on the roof of the cavern which was high enough to let Alex jump with his full strength and still have plenty of room to spare.

"Whoa..." Dana said in awe of the sight as she looked around.

Alex mainly focused on the landscape, trying to figure out the best ways to use the environment to their advantage in a fight. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed something small and shiny in a nearby bush. Curious, he moved to investigate. Pushing a few branches out of the way he saw what looked like a surveillance camera, he must have been standing in just the right position and noticed light reflecting off of it's lens.

"What are you looking at?" Dana asked, walking over to see for her self. Her expression became confused when she saw the camera.

The lens adjusted it's self as the camera focused on them. Alex scowled darkly, grabbing the camera he tore it off the metal stand it had been attached to, causing several electrical wires connecting them to snap and spark as they broke apart. He crushed the camera in his hand and threw the ruined device to the ground.

"A surveillance camera." He growled in annoyance. "We should keep our guard up, these things are probably scattered around everywhere and that means were going to constantly be watched from here on out. They'll know exactly where we are at all times, and they'll probably send soldiers to ambush us." He explained grimly, scanning the area with his thermal vision.

"If we get separated somehow, be on the look out for cameras, try to find a safe place to hide and I'll come find you. If you get attacked by monsters that you can't reason with before I can find you, just remember to use your knife and aim for vital organs or major arteries and veins, if you can find them, to kill them as quickly as possible. Only use your reset ability as an absolute last resort, understand? The less we have to use it, the better."

Dana sighed in resignation. "I understand. Seriously though, we took this trip to help you learn to relax, but since we fell down here you seem more paranoid then ever. I'm really starting to regret my decision to visit this mountain."

Alex berated himself mentally, scratching the back of his head through his hood uncertainly. "Sorry, Dana... Right now I just want to keep you safe. I promise once we get out of here and find a way to turn you back into an adult, we can go on another vacation at some point. I know you've always wanted to visit the beach, so why don't we go there this summer or something? Ever since I consumed some fish from the Aquarium the water doesn't hurt me anymore, after all. I'll try to let my guard down a little then."

Dana smiled at him, "Thanks, Alex..." With that she started down the snowy path ahead. Alex stayed where he was, looking down at the ground, pieces of the shattered camera strewn about haphazardly beneath him. Finally he followed after her, quickly catching up.

Suddenly they heard a loud snap from behind them, turning they saw a large hefty looking stick they had passed completely snapped in half. It would have taken more then a bit of force to break a stick that large. "What the..." Dana muttered to her self while Alex immediately activated his thermal vision and began scanning the trees around them but was unable to find anything.

On edge they continued forward. Suddenly Alex heard an extra set of footsteps and out of the corner of his eye saw a strange silhouette move behind a tree. Morphing his arm into his whip fist he threw it at the tree as hard as he could, piercing right through it and smashing it in half as he tried to grab whatever was hiding on the other side. However as his claw gripped down where it was supposed to be, Alex was shocked to discover that there was nothing there. He retracted his arm as the tree started to fall over into the forest.

Continuing on Alex's senses were on high alert, and he began to utilize a series of high pitched clicks that were inaudible to everything but him to monitor the surrounding area, similar to how a bat uses echolocation to navigate in the dark. It was one of the many new abilities he had gained from killing and consuming Pariah, while many of his others had been greatly enhanced and he had gained the ability to freely alter and control his cells as he desired where as in the past he was limited to only a few set transformations.

He was unable to detect anything around them except for a few stray rodents or insects until they finally came across a bridge, with what looked to be a horribly designed gate with gaps large enough to walk through in the middle of it. Suddenly he and Dana heard footsteps behind them and his echolocation detected a strangely shaped being about the size of Dana walking up to them, which had appeared out of no where. Finally once the being was right behind them, Alex spun around and grabbed at it faster then the human eye could follow. Somehow he missed even though his hand was in the exact spot where the creature had been standing a split second ago. All he had caught was empty air.

"hey now. is that any way to greet a new pal?" Said a strange looking skeleton monster with a huge smile on it's face standing behind them, it's hands in the pockets of it's jacket.

"New pal?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Don't make me laugh. Why were you sneaking up on us? If you were planning to ambush us and take us by surprise, you failed miserably."

"nah. you two are human right? i _am_ supposed to be on watch for humans right now, but... y'know... i don't really care about capturing anybody. now my brother papyrus, he's a human-hunting FANATIC, though he's pretty harmless. i was actually planing to surprise you so i could play a prank on you two... but you don't exactly seem to have the best sense of humor so i'll hold off."

"Wow, are you a skeleton?" asked Dana in amazement. She remembered meeting Napstablook so she wasn't surprised to learn there were other undead monsters, but she hadn't expected to meet another one so soon.

"yup. the name's sans, nice to meet ya." He casually held out his hand to Dana for a handshake.

Trying to be polite she returned the gesture, grasping his hand. As soon as she did there was a loud farting noise. Sans chuckled retracting his hand and putting it back in the pocket of his jacket. "the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny. anyways, you seem to have a much better since of humor then this guy." He said motioning towards Alex.

"Yeah, sorry about him. He's way too serious some times." Dana stated.

"don't worry about it, my brother's pretty much the same. he doesn't have much of a _funny-bone_ either." Sans looked behind them. "hey, actually, i think that's him over there. hey, i have an idea. go through this gate thingy. yeah, go right through. my bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

Dana shrugged and began walking across the bridge before Alex could object, leaving him no choice but to follow her.

"quick, behind that conveniently-shaped lamp." Sans told Dana pointing her to a strange lamp that matched her outline almost exactly next to a strange booth like structure. "you hide somewhere too." He told Alex.

Dana went and hid behind the lamp without a moment's hesitation while Alex reluctantly went and hid behind a tree, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice if necessary.

Suddenly a very tall skeleton wearing a strange costume came hurrying into the clearing. "sup, bro?" Sans asked nonchalantly.

"You Know What 'Sup,' Brother!" The tall skeleton declared loudly. "It's Been Days And You Still Haven't Re-calibrated. You're. Puzzles! You Just Hang Around Outside Your Station! What Are You Even Doing?!"

"staring at this lamp. it's really cool. do you wanna look?" Sans asked.

Alex's tendrils thrashed internally. He knew they shouldn't have trusted the skeleton. He released tendrils into the ground in preparation to impale the two skeletons should Papyrus whom Sans had designated as a "human-hunting fanatic" discover Dana.

"NO!" Papyrus shouted. "I Don't Have Time For That! What If A Human Comes Through Here!? I Want To Be Ready! I Will Be The One! I Must Be The One! I Will Capture A Human! Then, I, The Great Papyrus Will Get All The Things I Utterly Deserve! Respect... Recognition... I Will Finally Be Able To Join The Royal Guard! People Will Ask, To, Be My, 'Friend?' I Will Bath In A Shower Of Kisses Every Morning."

"hmm... maybe this lamp will help you." Sans suggested. Alex had a thin sharp tendril poke up out of the ground behind Sans and poke him in the back of the skull threateningly. "...or maybe not..." Sans muttered, the odd lights in his eyes going out, leaving only empty black eye sockets.

Papyrus didn't seem to notice instead he started stomping the ground furiously like a child throwing a temper tantrum. "Sans! Not Helping! You Lazybones! All You Do Is Sit And Boondoggle! You Get Lazier And Lazier Every Day!"

The light's in Sans' eye sockets reappeared. "hey, take it easy." He paused and looked in Alex's direction. Alex slowly retracted the tendril, getting the message. Sans looked back at Papyrus. "i've gotten a _ton_ of work done today. a skele- _ton_." He winked.

"Sans!" Papyrus shouted indignantly.

"come on. you're smiling." Sans stated.

"I Am And I Hate It!" Papyrus sighed. "Why Does Someone As Great As Me Have To Do So Much Just To Get Some Recognition..."

"Wow, it really sounds like you're working yourself... down to the _bone_." Sans winked

"Ugh! I Will Attend To My Puzzles... As For Your Work? Put A Little More ' _Back Bone_ ' into it!" With that Papyrus began to laugh proudly before walking away. Turning around he came back and let out one more laugh before actually leaving.

"okay, you can come out now." Sans stated.

"Thanks for hiding us, Sans, even though you almost gave me away a couple of times there." Dana stated.

"no prob... you oughta get going. he might come back. and if he does... you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes." Sans chuckled winking at Dana.

"Alright, see yeah later, Sans!" Dana waved as she and Alex walked away.

"actually, hey... hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor?" Sans called out. "I was thinking... my brother's been kind of down lately... he's never seen a human before. and seeing you might just make his day. don't worry, like I said, he's not dangerous. even if he tries to be."

"Sure, we'll try talking to him a bit if we run into him, and don't worry, I'll keep my older brother under control." Dana told him.

"thanks a million. i'll be up ahead." Sans stated before walking off back towards the bridge.


End file.
